Friction over? Centre clears Justice Joseph’s name as SC judge

New Delhi, Aug 3: Removing a major friction point between the legislature and judiciary, the government is said to have cleared the Collegium's decision to elevate Uttarakhand HC Chief Justice K M Joseph to the Supreme Court.

The government is also said to have cleared the names of Justice Indira Banerjee, Madras High Court, Chief Justice and Orissa HC CJ, Justice Vineet Saran as SC judges.

The elevation of Justice Joseph whose name was cleared by the Collegium on January 10 had become a major friction point between the SC and government. Two days after the decision of the Collegium was made, four senior most judges addressed a press conference criticising the functioning of Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra.

The Centre had in April returned the file and objected to the elevation of Justice Joseph citing lack of seniority. The Centre had said that his name had figured at 42 in the all-India seniority of judges list and such an elevation would supersede many and demolish legitimate expectations of HC judges to be appoint to the SC.

Following this there was wide speculation that the name of Justice Joseph had been rejected because as Uttarakhand CJ, he had struck down imposition of President's rule in the state by the BJP led NDA government in 2016 after dismissing the Harish Rawat led Congress government. Rawat government was later re-instated after the SC intervened and ordered a floor test.