KM Joseph elevated to Supreme Court as justice: Centre accepts Collegium's recommendation, ending months of uncertainty

Justice KM Joseph has been elevated to the Supreme Court, after the Centre cleared his name on Friday morning, ending several months of uncertainty.

A report on Hindustan Times said the “file has been moved”. “The file has been moved, but the orders have not yet been obtained,” the report quoted a government official familiar with the matter as saying.

Two other names — Justices Indira Banerjee and Vineet Sharan — were also cleared for appointment by the law ministry, another official said. The move paves the way for the appointment of three new judges to the top court, which currently has nine vacancies against a total strength of 31 judges, the report added.

Joseph was recommended for elevation by the Supreme Court Collegium in February this year. However, though the collegium said Joseph is “more deserving and suitable in all respects” than other chief justices and judges of the high courts, the Centre had returned his recommendation.

The government’s contention at the time was that having another Supreme Court judge from Kerala would distort the carefully maintained composition of the apex court. The apex court already had Justice Kurian Joseph, who was elevated as an Supreme Court judge on 8 March, 2013, from the Kerala High Court, while there were also two other high court chief justices — Justices TB Radhakrishnan and Antony Dominic, the parent high court for both of them being Kerala. Radhakrishnan is currently the Chief Justice of Chhattisgarh High Court, while Dominic is Chief Justice of Kerala High Court.

Furthermore, as a report on NDTV argued, it could also be because there is no Dalit judge on the roster of Supreme Court justices. It said that ever since KG Balakrishnan retired as the Chief Justice of India in 2010, not a single Dalit judge has been elevated to the Supreme Court or even as chief justice of a high court.

At a time when the government is facing a backlash from Dalits over a court verdict that relaxed provisions of the SC/ST Atrocities Act, the government also pointed out that the communities have not been represented in the Supreme Court for a long time.

However, the collegium in May unanimously agreed in principle to reiterate the recommendation for the elevation of KM Joseph as a judge of the Supreme court.

The five-member collegium, comprising Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph, decided that KM Joseph’s name should be accompanied with the recommendation of the names of chief justices of the high courts for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court.

News agency PTI reported the collegium as saying there was need for further discussion on the issue of sending other names to the Centre. “The chief justice and other members of the collegium have, on principle, unanimously agreed that the recommendation for appointment of Justice KM Joseph should be reiterated,” it said.

With inputs from PTI