Instead wants to Centre to appoint him as Jharkhand CJ; collegium reiterates justice Joseph’s elevation.
New Delhi: Buckling under pressure from the Modi government, the Supreme Court collegium has decided to withdraw its recommendation to appoint Calcutta High Court judge Aniruddha Bose as chief justice of the Delhi High Court.
Instead, it has recommended that Bose be appointed the chief justice of the Jharkhand High Court. Changing its stance on Bose is a departure from past convention, when the collegium stood by its decisions even in the face of opposition from the government.
ThePrint had first reported that the Modi government had rejected Bose’s elevation citing his lack of experience as a chief justice to handle such a prominent high court.
The decision on Bose was taken earlier this week, along with a slew of other appointments and transfers.
The collegium also reiterated its decision to elevate Uttarakhand High Court chief justice K.M. Joseph as judge of the Supreme Court. As decided earlier, it has sent two other names — Madras High Court chief justice Indira Banerjee and Odisha High Court chief justice Vineet Saran — for appointment as judges of the apex court.
Apart from Bose, the collegium has recommended names for chief justices of six other high courts.
Changes in high courts
With Bose named for Jharkhand High Court, the collegium has recommended Justice Rajendra Menon, the chief justice of the Patna High Court, to take over at the Delhi High Court.
The Delhi High Court’s acting chief justice Gita Mittal, who has been in the position for over a year, has been recommended for appointment as the chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
J&K High Court has had an acting chief justice, Arasta Alok, for the last two months.
Justice Menon’s spot in the Patna High Court will be filled by Justice M.R. Shah of the Bombay High Court.
Since the Madras High Court chief justice Indira Banerjee is set to move to the SC, justice V.K. Tahilramani, the second senior-most judge of the Bombay High Court, has been recommended to replace her. Tahilramani also ranks first in the all-India seniority list of judges.
With Orissa High Court chief justice Vineet Saran moving to the SC, the collegium has recommended Justice K.S. Jhaveri, the third senior-most judge in the Rajasthan High Court, to fill his place.
The collegium has also recommended Justice Hrishikesh Roy, the second senior-most judge in the Gauhati High Court, to be appointed as the chief justice of the Kerala High Court.
Joseph’s seniority
Although the previous collegium had unanimously agreed to reiterate Joseph’s name on 11 May, the file was not sent to the government immediately. The collegium had decided to send more names along with Joseph’s.
Since Joseph’s name has been reiterated along with two other recommendations, by the new collegium that came into existence after justice J. Chelameswar’s retirement, he will end up being the junior most judge of the apex court.
Joseph is 44th in the all-India seniority list, below both Banerjee and Saran.
If all three appointments are made, the SC judges tally will reach 25 with six vacancies. It will also be the first time that the apex court will have three women judges. Banerjee will join justices Indu Malhotra and R. Banumathi on the list.
Sources also said that the collegium considered the names of Madhya Pradesh High Court chief justice Hemant Gupta and Karnataka High Court chief justice Dinesh Maheswari for elevation to the Supreme Court but left out their names for now, as it did not want to give the government more ammunition to oppose its recommendations.
Gupta was earlier linked to an Enforcement Directorate probe while Maheshwari was earlier transferred to Karnataka from Rajasthan after the collegium received certain complaints against him.