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2 Kerala lawyers set to take oath as judges, 3 yrs after HC collegium nod for elevation

Kerala HC collegium recommended C.P. Mohammed Nias and Viju Abraham's elevation in 2018. SC Collegium cleared their names in 2019, but govt sent them back.

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New Delhi: Over three years after their names were first recommended for elevation by the Kerala High Court collegium, two lawyers got appointed as judges in the court Wednesday.

According to a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Law, C.P. Mohammed Nias and Viju Abraham will be additional judges of Kerala High Court for two years, with effect from the date they assume charge.

The Kerala High Court Collegium sent Abraham’s name along with six others to the Supreme Court Collegium (SCC) in March 2018, and the latter considered the proposals in October 2018.

After deferring Abraham’s case twice, the SCC finally forwarded his name in May 2019 to the Narendra Modi government. However, the government returned the file, asking the collegium to reconsider the appointment.

Similarly, the Kerala High Court mooted the proposal to elevate Nias in April 2018. The SCC cleared his name in March 2019, but the central government returned his file too.

In March this year, the SCC, led by the then Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde, reiterated the names of both Abraham and Nias, along with that of advocate Paul K.K., overruling the Centre’s objections.

While the Centre has finalised Nias and Abraham’s appointments, it is yet to take a decision on Paul K.K.

Speaking to ThePrint, former judges who were part of the SCC in 2019 said the government had returned the files of Abraham and Nias without any particular objection. It had simply asked the SCC to reconsider the two names.

As the matter remained pending between the government and the SCC, nine advocates, three of them junior to both Nias and Abraham, whose names were cleared either along with or after theirs, got elevated as judges and would now be senior to the two in hierarchy.


Also read: Parliament passes tribunal reforms bill, but here’s why it could cause Supreme Court heartburn


35 recommended names yet to be cleared

The two notifications Wednesday come almost a fortnight after Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju made a statement in Parliament that out of 80 recommendations made by the SCC between July 2020 and July 2021, the government had notified 45 as high court judges.

Responding to MP John Brittas in the Rajya Sabha, Rijiju said the remaining proposals were in various stages of processing with the government and the SCC.

According to the break-up provided in the reply, the government has cleared seven out of 11 names suggested for the Allahabad High Court, where the working strength of judges is 94 against a sanctioned strength of 160.

For the Bombay High Court, the SCC had cleared 13 names. However, the government has only notified four appointments. This high court has 63 judges with a vacancy of 31. For the Calcutta High Court, the SCC had cleared 13 names, but the Centre has not notified any appointments so far.

Similarly, for Delhi, the government appointed two out of six recommendations, and in Kerala, it has cleared five out of eight proposals. In Madhya Pradesh, the government appointed six out of nine names suggested, while for Jammu and Kashmir, it has not yet cleared the two names pending with it.

The only high courts where all SCC recommendations have resulted in appointments are Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madras, and Punjab & Haryana.

(Edited by Amit Upadhyaya)


Also read: SC tells parties to publish candidates’ criminal records, directs EC to monitor compliance


 

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