NEW DELHI: The supreme court on Wednesday asked the Centre to file its response to a petition challenging appointment of Justice Ashok Kumar as a permanent judge of the Madras high court.
Petitioner advocate Kamini Jaiswal’s counsel Shanti Bhushan says that Justice Kumar was elevated as permanent judge without the concurrence of the supreme court collegium. When he was appointed as additional judge, Jaiswal had moved the apex court saying he had been appointed to the constitutional post in complete disregard to the statutory rule that the chief justice must consult two senior most judges while making the appointment. Chief justice of India can appoint additional and permanent judges of the high courts after obtaining the consent of two senior most judges who form the collegium.
At an earlier hearing, the Centre had confirmed that at least 351 additional judges of high courts had been made permanent by the respective chief justices without consulting the apex court’s collegium between January 1999 and July 2007. Jaiswal’s petition said that Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan cleared the appointed of Justice Ashok Kumar.Bhushan wants clarity on the antecedents of the judge concerned as he has doubts about the antecedents of some newly-appointed judges who might be of doubtful integrity.
Questioning the veracity of the contents of the government’s affidavit, Prashant Bhushan said it was wrong to say that the CJIs never consulted the collegium in matters of judicial appointment or promotions. “For example, even in the case of Justice Kumar, former CJIs repeatedly consulted the collegium for confirmation of his services but they merely extended his services from time to time between 2004 and 2006 as former Supreme Court Judge Ruma Pal, a member of the collegium then, objected to his confirmation as a regular judge’’, he said.
Other former chief justices whose decisions have been questioned by Bhushan are ex-CJIs SP Bharucha, BN Kirpal, GB Pattnaik, VN Khare, S Rajendra Babu, KC Lahoti, YK Sabharwal and AS Anand.
Rakesh Bhatnagar
Thursday, April 17, 2008 00:07 IST
www.dnaindia.com
About Me
- Kamal Kumar Pandey (Adv. Supreme Court of India)
- Lawyer Practising at Supreme Court of India. Court Experience: Criminal, Civil & PIL (related to Property, Tax, Custom & Duties, MVAC, insurance, I.P.R., Copyrights & Trademarks, Partnerships, Labour Disputes, etc.) Socio-Legal: Child Rights, Mid Day Meal Programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Women Rights, Against Female Foeticide, P.R.Is, Bonded Labour, Child labour, Child marriage, Domestic violence, Legal Literacy, HIV/AIDS, etc. Worked for Legal Aid/Advise/Awareness/Training/Empowerment/Interventions/Training & Sensitisation.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comment