Senior judge stays away as SC collegium finalises names of judges

The names of 7 High Court Chief Justices which were finalised by the collegium were later circulated to Justice Chelameswar

New Delhi, Nov 14: Justice J Chelameswar stayed away from the recent collegium meeting held to finalise the names of judges to be elevated to the Supreme Court of India. Justice Chelameswar who is one of the five judges in the Supreme Court collegium stayed away from the meeting.

The names of 7 High Court Chief Justices which were finalised by the collegium were later circulated to Justice Chelameswar. It is learnt that Chief Justice of India, TS Thakur tried to convince Justice Chelameswar to attend the meet, but that exercise went in vain.

Justice Chelameswar objects

The collegium is understood to have favoured the elevation of the following Chief Justices of the High Courts. Justice Manjula Chellur (Bombay), Justice Deepak Gupta (Chattisgarh), Justice N N Paul Vasanthkumar (J&K), Justice Subhash Reddy (Gujarat), Justice Navin Sinha (Rajasthan), Justice Ahmed Mir (Himachal Pradesh), K M Joseph (Uttarakhand).

These names were circulated to Justice Chelameswar. He is understood to have objected to one of the names. He even conveyed the same in writing to the collegium. The collegium will have to take a final call before sending the names to the union government for clearance.

It may be recalled that in the National Judicial Appointments Commission matter, Justice Chelameswar was the lone dissenting member on the Bench. The Supreme Court had strict down the NJAC act while upholding the process of appointing judges to the higher judiciary through the collegium system.

OneIndia News