First time in 15 years: Two lawyers to be appointed as SC judges

For the first time in 15 years, the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha has recommended the names of two lawyers from the Supreme Court bar council to be elevated directly as SC judges, according to reports in The Times of India and The Hindu.  The two lawyers –Gopal Subramaniam and Rohinton Fali Nariman – have been solicitor generals in the past. [caption id=“attachment_1509091” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Supreme Court building. AFP[/caption] While all formalities have been completed for the appointment, the final nod from the government is still awaited. According to the TOI report_,_  “It was not clear whether the nod would come during the last three days of the UPA government or whether it would have to wait for the new dispensation.” In Supreme Court, judges are rarely appointed from the bar, although in High Courts in India lawyers are sometimes elevated to the position of judges. Usually, a former chief justice of a high court is elevated to the position of a SC judge. According to The Hindu, “The first to be appointed judge from the Bar was Justice SM Sikri in 1963.” The last elevation from the bar to SC judge was in 1999, adds the report, when Santosh Hegde was appointed judge. Subramaniam has been practising since 1980 and led the CBI counsel in the case against Kasab, says the report in TOI.  He was also a counsel member in the Justice JS Verma Commission that investigated the security lapses in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Rohinton Nariman is the son of celebrated lawyer Fali Nariman and at 37 was the youngest lawyer to be appointed senior advocate in the Supreme Court. According to the report in The Hindu, “He was designated a senior advocate at the age of 37 in 1993 when the then CJI, MN Venkatachaliah, amended the rules for designating a lawyer as a senior advocate by reducing the minimum age limit of 45.” Subramaniam was also appointed as a Senior Advocate in the same year by CJI Venkatachaliah. Interestingly, Subramaniam had resigned as Solicitor General in 2011 to protest the government’s decision to hire Rohinton Nariman as a lawyer in a  telecommunications case in the SC.