Scheduled Caste Collegium faces tough balancing act on vacant posts

The Supreme Court Collegium is trying to reach a consensus on the recommendations to fill the five vacancies in the apex court.

Chief Justice of India Sharad A. With barely a month left for Bobde to retire, the collegium is discussing diverse opinions on issues such as proportional representation among various High Courts and High Court judges before finalizing the names to recommend the government to the government . Appointment.

Proportional representation from high courts and seniority, though not just conventions and constitutional or legal mandates, carry weight during the appointment process.

Fading power

Last appointments to Supreme Court Justice Krishna Murari, s. Ravindra Bhat, V. Ramasubramanian and Hrishikesh Roy were married in September 2019. In the past several months, the Supreme Court has seen a range of challenges, which have also come in the form of epidemics. The judicial power faded to 29 with the recent retirement of Justice Indu Malhotra.

Four will retire in the top court in the year 2021, starting with Chief Justice Bobde, Justices Ashok Bhushan, Rohinton Nariman and Naveen Sinha. The latter two judges retired in August and stayed a few days apart.

The names of many judges of the High Court are in the field of consideration.

Information published by the Ministry of Law on 1 March suggests that S.IAs per his initial appointment in 2003 and 2004, among the current Chief Justices of 25 High Courts, Chief Justice of Karnataka AS Oka, Tripura Chief Justice Akeel Abdulhamid Qureshi, Delhi Chief Justice DN Patel, Allahabad Chief Justice Govind Mathur, Gujarat. Is the Chief Justice. Vikram Nath and Chief Justice of Calcutta TB Radhakrishnan.

Of this, Chief Justice Mathur and Radhakrishnan will retire during 2021. Other Chief Justices of the High Courts retiring this year include Chief Justice of Telangana Kumari Hema Kohli, Chhattisgarh Chief Justice PR Ramachandran Menon, Himachal Chief Justice LN Swamy and Uttarakhand Chief Justice R.S. Chauhan.

pinch point

However, the remaining Chief Justices are concerned with the High Courts, which already have several representations in the Supreme Court judiciary.

For example, Justice Oka’s parents have a High Court Bombay, which currently has the largest representation in the Supreme Court along with Chief Justice Bobade, followed by Justices AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and BR Gavai. Justices Chandrachud and Gavai line up to be CJI as per seniority standard.

The High Court of Justice Vikram Nath’s parents is Allahabad. But this High Court already has three representations – Justice Bhushan, Vineet Saran and Murari. Justice Kohli’s parents have a High Court in Delhi, with SK Kaul, Sanjeev Khanna and S in the apex court. Ravindra Bhat has three representations.

After this, Justice Swamy is from Karnataka again. But in the Supreme Court, Justice MM Shantanagoudar, s. This Court has three representations along with Abdul Nazer and AS Sopanna. However, Justice B.V. of Karnataka High Court Nagarathna’s name is under consideration for changing the vacancy of Justice Indu Malhotra in the collegium.

While the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court Govind Mathur hails from Rajasthan. The apex court already has justices Ajay Rastogi and Dinesh Maheshwari from that state. Other High Courts which have several representations in the Supreme Court are Calcutta and Punjab and Haryana.

The Supreme Court has, however, some state HCs that have sole representation. These include the next CJI Justice NV Raman as per seniority criteria, whose parents are HC Andhra; Justice Ramasubramanian from Madras HC; Justice KM Joseph whose parents are HC Kerala; Justice RS Reddy is the only representation from the Telangana HC; Justice Roy whose parents are HC Gauhati; MR Shah and Sinha from Gujarat and Patna HC respectively.

In fact, the bench from the Supreme Court bar – Justices Nariman, YU Lalit and L. The number of direct appointments of Nageswara Rao – more than the representation from some state HCs.