'They might not have liked his judgments on IT rules, the Election Commission and Pondicherry.'
Displaying earnest, government will seek the views of jurists and former judges on the proposed Judicial Appointments Commission bill it plans to bring in Parliament to replace the present collegium system where judges appoint judges.
The Supreme Court of India has released an inquiry report into the alleged discovery of a large amount of cash at the residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma. The report, which includes photos and videos, was uploaded on the court's website. Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna has formed an in-house committee to investigate the matter and has asked the Delhi High Court Chief Justice to not assign any judicial work to Justice Varma. Justice Varma has denied the allegations, claiming they are part of a conspiracy to frame him. The inquiry report, submitted by the Delhi High Court Chief Justice, has been made public and calls for a deeper probe into the incident. The incident has raised concerns about judicial accountability and has prompted the Congress party to call for strong measures to uphold public trust in the judiciary.
The 56-year-old judge, enrolled as an advocate in 1992, was appointed as an additional judge of the Allahabad high court on October 13, 2014 and took oath as a permanent judge of that court on February 1, 2016.
The five-member Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, said that there was 'nothing adverse' regarding suitability of Justice Joseph.
Rijiju also said the Centre respects judiciary as its independence is "absolutely necessary" for a thriving democracy.
'The collegium system will remove any such doubts from the minds of people and the political parties.'
The Supreme Court on Thursday said there was no bar on the collegium to go ahead with its work to appoint judges for the higher judiciary, which is plagued with large-scale vacancies.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down heavily on Manipur high court judge Justice MV Muralidaran, saying despite being granted an opportunity he did not correct his judgment on grant of quota to the majority Meiteis in the strife-torn state.
Delhi high court judge Justice S Muralidhar was on Wednesday transferred to the Punjab and Haryana high court. A government notification about the transfer was issued on Wednesday which said that after consultation with Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday transferred Justice S Muralidhar, judge of the Delhi high court, as judge of Punjab and Haryana high court. The notification further said the President has directed Muralidhar to assume charge of his office in Punjab and Haryana high court.
Outgoing Chief Justice of India BR Gavai defends the Supreme Court's verdict on governors' powers, emphasizing the principle of separation of powers and judicial independence.
The collegium has recommended to the Centre to appoint justices N H Patil and D K Gupta as the chief justices of the Bombay and Calcutta high court.
The Supreme Court, which had on February 7 refused to entertain two pleas seeking to restrain Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri from taking oath as an additional judge of the Madras high court, on Friday pronounced the reasons for the dismissal of the petitions.
Justice Bobde, 63, also rued the criticism of judges on social media for their judicial actions and said most of the judges, who are not "thick skinned", get perturbed.
A section of the Madras high court Bar Association has opposed the Supreme Court collegium's recommendation to elevate advocate Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri for judgeship at the Madras HC and demanded her recall.
In an unprecedented development, the Supreme Court Collegium has made public the names of the two judges on the panel who objected to the method of 'circulation' adopted for eliciting the views of its members on the appointment of judges to the apex court.
Last month, the Supreme Court collegium had withdrawn its approval to a proposal for the appointment of additional judge, Justice Ganediwala as a permanent judge of the court following her two controversial verdicts.
In an unprecedented decision, the Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the names of three women judges for appointment in the apex court which, if cleared, would give the country its first woman Chief Justice of India (CJI) in the form of Justice B V Nagarathna on February 10, 2027.
In a first, the Supreme Court Collegium had last week recommended for appointment to the apex court three women judges, including Justice B V Nagarathna who will be in line to be the first woman Chief Justice of India (CJI) in September 2027 if she gets the final nod.
There is a need to think about the collegium system so that appointments in higher judiciary can be accelerated," Rijiju said.
Justices N Kotiswar Singh and R Mahadevan were on Tuesday elevated as judges of the Supreme Court.
The Bombay High Court has ruled that Pushpa Ganediwala, the former HC judge who had faced criticism for a series of controversial judgments in POCSO Act cases, is entitled to receive pension on par with a high court judge. Ganediwala was demoted as district sessions judge at the end of her additional judgeship in 2022 following an uproar over some judgments passed by her on the interpretation of what constitutes a sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. She had filed a petition challenging a communication issued by the HC registrar declaring that she was not eligible for pension of a HC judge. The court quashed the communication and directed the registry to fix her pension with 6% interest from February 2022.
The CJI's announcement made in the apex court assumes significance in the wake of Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju's statement in Rajya Sabha on Thursday in which he said there was a feeling among the people that long court vacations were not very convenient for justice seekers.
In January, the Supreme Court Collegium had reiterated its November 11, 2021 recommendation for appointing Kirpal as a judge of the Delhi high court, rejecting the Centre's contention that though homosexuality stands decriminalised in India, same-sex marriage is still bereft of recognition.
Her resignation has been accepted with effect from September 6, it said.
A total of 11 advocates and two judicial officers were on Monday appointed as additional judges in the high courts of Allahabad, Karnataka and Madras.
The SC collegium had in 2016 recommended names of Harnaresh Singh Gill and Mohammed Nizamuddin for appointment as judges of the Punjab and Haryana high court and the Calcutta high court respectively.
CJI Chandrachud met the delegations in the presence of two other members of the collegium -- Justice SK Kaul and Justice MR Shah.
A row erupted after the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi-headed five-judge Collegium in a fresh resolution on January 10 recommended the elevation of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Sanjiv Khanna to the Supreme Court bypassing the seniority of several judges.
Opposing the transfer of Madras high court Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee to Meghalaya, over 200 advocates of the Madras high court have signed a representation to the Chief Justice of India, N V Ramana and the Supreme Court collegium, seeking to reconsider the decision to shift CJ Banerjee.
The Department of Justice in the Union Law Ministry issued separate notifications announcing the appointment of acting chief justice of the Bombay high court Justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala as the chief justice of the Madras high court and Justice Ramesh Deokinandan Dhanuka as the chief justice of the Bombay high court.
'There is one negative thing which has happened very quietly. The position of the election commissioner has been downgraded.'
'The quality of justice is directly linked to the quality of judges -- if that suffers, justice delivery suffers.'
Some of his directives had the Supreme Court judges disclose their assets whereas the row over the discovery of cash from a sitting judge's official residence paved way for inquiry.
The appointments were announced by new Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Twitter.
A bench of Justices S K Kaul and A S Oka also expressed displeasure over the delay in clearing recommendations for transfer of high court judges, calling it a 'very serious issue', and warned that any delay in this matter may result in both administrative and judicial actions which might not be palatable.
'As per the provisions under the Constitution of India, Hon'ble President of India has appointed the following Chief Justices of High Courts as Judges of the Supreme Court. My best to them: Rajesh Bindal, Chief Justice, Allahabad HC and Aravind Kumar, Chief Justice, Gujarat HC,' Law Minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted.
'There is one weapon in the government's armoury which impacts the independence of the judiciary, and which has not been affected by the collegium system.' 'It is post-retirement employment with the government. 'This is because some judges -- but not all -- are offered post-retirement employment by the government, and it has often been feared that judges close to retirement might decide cases so as to please the government in order to get a favourable post-retirement position,' says Abhinav Chandrachud.
The Centre expressed its inability before the SC in formulating the draft Memorandum of Procedure for appointment of judges.
While naming him as the NDA candidate for the Vice President's post, the BJP had described him as 'Kisan putra', a move seen in the political circles aimed at reaching out to the politically significant Jat community which had participated in huge numbers in the year-long farmers' protests against agriculture reform measures unveiled in June 2020.
