Ravi Shankar Prasad says Centre has role to “flag view” and will do it, trusts judges to sort out their differences.
New Delhi: Breaking its silence on the controversy over the stalled elevation of justice K.M. Joseph to the Supreme Court, the Centre asserted Monday that the “law ministry and the law minister” could not remain mere post offices.
“But I wish to make it very clear that the law minister or the law ministry is not a post office. This fact I would like to very gently highlight. Even in the collegium system…created by the three judgments of 1993, 1998 and 1999, the right of the government has been acknowledged to seek a reconsideration and also to give inputs,” Union Law minister Ravi Prasad said addressing an event.
His remarks come almost two months after the Centre asked the Supreme Court collegium to reconsider its recommendation to elevate justice Joseph, who is the Uttarakhand High Court chief justice, to the Supreme Court.
He said by seeking reconsideration, the government wasn’t committing a cardinal sin.
“We have a constitutional role…we shall continue to respectfully and gently convey our views. Obviously, the collegium has to take a call,” Prasad said.
The alleged “cherry picking” of judges for elevation has caused much consternation within the corridors of the Supreme Court with several judges, including those in the apex court, speaking out against the alleged interference by the Centre in judiciary.
File with collegium
At a meeting on 11 May, the collegium had unanimously decided on reiterating judge Joseph’s name for elevation. However, the collegium hasn’t sent the file back to the Centre since it wants to discuss and recommend names of some other high court chief justices too.
The elevation issue has among other been responsible for the top court being embroiled in an unprecedented tussle between senior judges in the past six months. Earlier this year, four senior SC judges – justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph – had spoken out against Chief Justice Dipak Misra. Since then, the judges have spoken out several times, against what they claim is the Centre’s interference in the workings of the judiciary.