New Delhi: The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the names of Justices B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant to the Centre for their elevation as apex court judges and reiterated its proposal for the elevation of Justices Aniruddha Bose and A.S. Bopanna.
According to LiveLaw, sources claimed that Centre had returned the proposal forwarded by the Collegium recommending Bose and Bopanna due to “seniority concerns” “The government has sought a rethink on the decision.”
However, pushing for the two judges again, the Supreme Court Collegium stated:
“The Collegium is of the view that, as laid down by the Supreme Court in its Opinion in Re: Special Reference No.1 of 1998 reported in (1998) 7 SCC 739, though inter-se seniority amongst Judges in their High Courts and their combined seniority on all-India basis should be given due weightage, merit should be the predominant consideration. The Collegium accordingly kept in mind these parameters while recommending the above two names”.
Justice Gavai, who was recommended Wednesday, is presently a judge of the Bombay high court and Justice Kant is the incumbent Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh high court.
As per the Collegium recommendation uploaded on the top court’s website, the five-member Collegium headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi met on Wednesday and recommended these two names for their elevation as Supreme Court judges.
According to a LiveLaw report, the Collegium observed while making their fresh recommendation:
“the Collegium has taken into consideration combined seniority on all-India basis of Chief Justices and senior puisne Judges of High Courts, apart from their competence, conduct and integrity. The Collegium has also kept in mind the desirability of giving due representation on the Bench of the Supreme Court, as far as possible, to all the High Courts as well as to all sections of the society including those belonging to SC/ST/OBC categories, women and minorities. We are also conscious of the fact that some High Courts have remained unrepresented in the Supreme Court”.
Against the sanctioned strength of 31 judges, the apex court is presently functioning with 27 judges.