Permanent Judges: Centre says CJIs bypassing SC directions

New Delhi, Jan 7 (UNI) The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that successive Chief Justices of India (CJIs) have been bypassing the apex court's judgements directing not to make any additional judge permanent without consulting the Court's collegium.

The Central government, in its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on January 4 in response to a writ petition by former Union Law Minister and senior advocate Shanti Buhshan, has revealed that successive CJIs have made 351 additional judges permanent without consulting the Supreme Court collegium which comprises of the CJI and three senior-most apex court judges.

According to the Centre, not even a single appointment of permanent judges from January 1, 1999 to July 31, 2007 had been made taking the collegium into confidence.

Affidavit sworn by Ramesh Chandra Nayak, an Undersecretary in the Union Law&Justice Ministry, has also said that CJIs had been ignoring the collegium since 1999.

The first ruling of the Supreme Court on the issue was pronounced in 1993 making it mandatory for the CJI to consult the collegium before making any recommendation to the government to make an additional judge permanent.

A bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat had earlier directed the Union Law&Justice Ministry to come out with details of High Court judges who had been made permanent solely on recommendations of the CJI without consulting the collegium.

There are three judgements to the effect till date.

Mr Bhushan, in his petition, has alleged that present CJI K G Balakrishnan had recommended that Madras High Court Justice Ashok Kumar be made permanent without taking the collegium into confidence and appealed to the apex court to examine the issue in detail and issue appropriate directions in the matter so that such violations were not repeated in future.

UNI AKS/SC MS KN1731