Crucial Supreme Court collegium meets today to reconsider name of Justice KM Joseph

New Delhi: A crucial meeting of the Supreme Court Collegium is likely to take place on Wednesday to reconsider the name of the Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph for elevation as a judge of the apex court which was sent back by the government last week, an official said on Tuesday.

The five-member collegium, comprising Chief Justice Misra and justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, is likely to discuss threadbare the note sent to the CJI by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad while returning the file relating to the recommendation to elevate Justice Joseph as an apex court judge.

Justice Joseph’s name was recommended along with the senior advocate Indu Malhotra on 10 January for their elevation as apex court judges. The government had on 26 April declined to accept the recommendation of the Collegium and asked it to reconsider his name.

Malhotra was sworn in as the judge of the apex court on 27 April.

Justice KM Joseph, who had headed the bench that had quashed the Narendra Modi government’s decision to impose President’s rule in the Congress-ruled hill state in 2016, was not considered to be elevated as a Supreme Court judge by the Centre which said the proposal was not in accordance with the top court’s parameters and there was adequate representation of Kerala in the higher judiciary from where he hails.

His seniority was also questioned by the Centre which said “he stands at Sl. No.45 in the combined seniority of High Court Judges on all-India basis.”

Justice Joseph, who turns 60 this June, has been the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court since July 2014. He was appointed a permanent judge of the Kerala High Court on 14 October, 2004 and assumed charge of the Uttarakhand High Court on 31 July, 2014.

The members of the collegium including Justices Chelameswar, Gogoi, Lokur and Kurian Joseph had expressed concern over the delay in clearing the name of the Uttarakhand Chief Justice as the apex court judge. Notwithstanding the letters written by the collegium members to the CJI, which had come into the public domain, the centre disregarded the recommendation about Justice Joseph.