Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said Justice S Muralidhar of the Delhi high court was transferred on the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium and accused the Congress of politicising a routine transfer. He added that a "well-settled process" was followed in the transfer of Justice Muralidhar to the Punjab and Haryana high court.
The CJI administered the oath of office to the two new judges in a swearing-in ceremony held at the apex court's auditorium in New Delhi.
Karnataka high court Chief Justice P B Varale was on Thursday administered the oath of office as a Supreme Court judge by Chief Justice of India Justice D Y Chandrachud in New Delhi.
Out of 77 names recommended by collegium to the government, 34 have been cleared for appointment as high court judges.
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi will administer the oath of office to the two judges on Friday, an official circular said.
The system of 'selecting' an election commissioner, which is before the Supreme Court, must be institutionalised.
A five-judge bench of the apex court chaired by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud sat on a holiday to address the dispute where a defiant judge overruled an order of a division bench that had quashed his direction for a CBI probe and asked the central agency to go ahead with the investigation.
'Is the idea of a committed judiciary once again being floated, though surreptitiously, unlike in the past when it was direct?'
The collegium had recommended her transfer on August 28, after which she had made a representation requesting it to reconsider the proposal.
The Supreme Court on Monday flagged the issue of "pick and choose" by the Centre in clearing the collegium's recommendations for transferring high court judges and said this does not send a good signal.
Bombay high court judge Justice Pushpa Ganediwala, who faced flak over a series of judgments that were deemed as controversial for the interpretation of what constitutes as 'sexual assault' under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, has resigned.
Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna has recommended the impeachment of Allahabad High Court judge Yashwant Varma following an investigation into a cash discovery incident at his residence. The recommendation follows a report by a Supreme Court-appointed committee that confirmed allegations of cash discovery against Justice Varma. The CJI's recommendation is based on the established in-house procedure for dealing with allegations against judges of constitutional courts.
Most of the recommendations with regard to appointment of judges in high courts were pending with the collegium headed by the CJI, it said.
'Presumption of innocence must guide all formal actions, but transparency must not be mistaken for pre-judgment.' 'The cruel irony, however, is that Justice Varma is a fine judge who enjoys a reputation for writing well-reasoned judgments.'
'If you were to say today that the government should appoint judges to the high courts and Supreme Court, then I think that even those few good judges that we are getting today we would not get them.'
The senior most among the five judges, whose names were officially announced by the Centre on Saturday, is Justice Mithal whose parent cadre is the Allahabad high court.
'As a result of delays, the desired reliefs are not coming for taxpayers.'
Justice Chandrachud also dealt with questions about criticism by eminent lawyers on the allocation of cases to particular judges and 'bench hunting', and said the allocation of cases is not "lawyer-driven" and vowed to maintain the credibility of the institution of the Supreme Court.
The Prime Minister's Office during Manmohan Singh's tenure had asked why the Supreme Court collegium had not recommended extension for a Madras High Court judge who was facing corruption charges after the collegium expressed its hesitation, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in Parliament on Tuesday
People sitting in responsible positions have to think before saying anything, whether it will benefit the country or not
The year 2022 is going to be the second year since the inception of the top court in 1950 which will see three different CJIs in as many months.
Several top jurists on Monday pushed for scrapping the existing collegium system where judges appoint judges but government's plans to bring a bill to make the process of appointments more transparent may take some more time.
The collegium system of appointment of judges is likely to stay for the time being as Parliament could not pass a constitutional amendment bill in the last session of the Lok Sabha to put in place a new mechanism giving the Executive a say in the matter.
Justice Ramana said that he took up the issues concerning the appointment of judges and infrastructure during his term and hoped that he stood up to the expectations of the legal fraternity.
Parliamentary sovereignty cannot be permitted to be diluted or compromised by the executive or the judiciary, he said in his strongest remarks yet against alleged judicial interference in the working of Parliament.
The fresh appointments are to be made to the Allahabad, Calcutta, Delhi, Rajasthan and the Bombay high courts, among others.
'He was the best court craftsman that I have ever seen who could modulate his arguments in accordance with the judge and the mood.'
The Congress' attack comes after Law Minister Rijiju wrote to Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud suggesting the inclusion of representatives from the Union and state governments in the Supreme Court and high court collegiums.
The sources indicated that the government was not averse to elevating Justice Kureshi as the chief justice of some other high court.
Facing criticism from the Chief Justice of India over the Gopal Subramanium controversy, the government on Wednesday said it has the "highest regard" for the
The government has also given its nod to appoint Madras high court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Orissa high court Chief Justice Vineet Saran to the SC.
Justice J Chelameswar, a senior judge of the SC and a member of the five-member collegium, has written to the CJI seeking transparency in the appointment of higher judiciary judges.
Senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam on Wednesday asked the Chief Justice of India to withdraw the recommendation about his candidature as the judge of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday came out with a slew of guidelines to improve the collegium system of appointment of judges in the higher judiciary to make it more transparent and accountable by asking the Centre to finalise a memorandum of procedure in consultation with the Chief Justice of India.
Kiren Rijiju's exit from the coveted law ministry came in the midst of his frequent criticism of the judiciary, particularly on the system of appointment of judges to high courts and the Supreme Court.
What is the independence of the judiciary if independent and fearless judges are not being appointed, SC judge Rohinton Fali Nariman said.
"We have prepared a broad platform where we have assessed the top 50 judges of the country who would be considered for appointment to the Supreme Court of India. We have data on judgments and the quality of judgments. The idea is to make the process of appointment in the Supreme Court more transparent," the CJI said.
Senior advocate Uday U Lalit has been recommended by the Supreme Court collegium to be a judge on its bench.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court Collegium had recommended the transfer of Justice Banerjee to the Meghalaya high court. This decision snowballed into a controversy with voices for and against the shifting of the senior judge.
The Supreme Court collegium on Friday transferred Justice Dinakaran to Sikkim high court. On April 3, the collegium had asked the chief justice of Karnataka high court to go on leave. Dinakaran, 59, has not been performing judicial functions after Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari admitted a motion in December seeking his removal on charges of corruption, land-grab and abuse of the judicial office.
