Govt cautioned against segregation of names recommended by the collegium for appointment to SC

New Delhi: Responding to Law Ministry’s reluctance in accepting Supreme Court collegium’s recommended names for elevation to the SC, the legal experts have sternly cautioned the government, pointing that a chief justice of India had told the law ministry not to "segregate" names sent for appointment together. According to sources, the government wanted to appoint senior advocate Indu Malhotra to the Supreme Court, but wanted to keep on hold the name of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K M Joseph. Both these names were recommended together by the SC collegium in January for elevation to the apex court and the SC ensures that both these recommendations be appointed to the SC. However, the government feels that while recommending the name of Justice Joseph, the collegium has disregarded seniority and regional representation. The collegium, while recommending the name of Justice Joseph for the top court, had said that he is "more deserving and suitable in all respects than other chief justices and senior judges of high courts for being appointed as judge of the Supreme Court of India". The collegium had taken in to consideration combined seniority on all-India basis of chief justices and senior puisne judges of high courts, apart from their merit and integrity, the body of top five judges of the SC had said. On being asked whether the collegium's recommendation could be segregated, the legal experts reminded the government of a letter written by the then CJI R M Lodha in June, 2014 in which he had made it clear that the executive cannot segregate recommendations without prior approval of the collegium. The letter had been written by Justice Lodha in a similar case when the government had decided against elevating senior lawyer and former solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam to the Supreme Court, while accepting other recommendations of the collegium. But in the meantime, Subramaniam withdrew his consent to be recommended for judgeship. Previously too the government had put a hold on a 2016 recommendation of the SC collegium proposing transfer of Justice Joseph from Uttarakhand to Andhra Pradesh. The Uttarakhand HC chief justice had set aside the imposition of President's Rule in the state in April, 2016. (with PTI inputs)