Form of words:
New Delhi: With the Supreme Court collegium recommending the name of a sitting judge of the Gujarat High Court for promotion to the apex court, the chances of Justice Aqeel Qureshi for promotion to the apex court have been slimmed down.
Qureshi, who is currently the Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court, is second in the seniority list of all India judges. He has previously served as a judge in the Bombay High Court and the Gujarat High Court.
The Supreme Court Collegium – an appointments panel headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and followed by the top four senior justices – on August 21 approved nine names for the top court. The recommendations have been sent to the central government for formal notification.
While the collegium chose Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Justice Abhay Oka, whose name topped the seniority list of judges, it did not include Justice Qureshi.
Others recommended for promotion include Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Vikram Nath, Gujarat High Court Judge Justice Bela M. Trivedi, Sikkim High Court Chief Justice JK Maheshwari, Telangana High Court Justice Hima Kohli, Karnataka High Court Justice BV Nagarathna is a judge of the Kerala High Court. Justice CT Ravi Kumar, Justice MM Sundaresh of Madras High Court and senior advocate PS Narasimha.
Though Justice Qureshi is retiring in March next year and there will be two vacancies in the apex court before he demits office, sources in the apex court said his name is unlikely to be proposed. This is because by then the Supreme Court bench will already have two judges who consider the Gujarat High Court as their parent court.
Judge of Gujarat High Court
Justice Trivedi, who is the fifth judge in seniority in the Gujarat High Court, is among three women judges to be recommended for the top court. With his elevation, the number of judges of Gujarat will increase to two. At present, Justice MR Shah is the only judge from Gujarat in the Supreme Court.
There is no strict rule that seniority should be given priority when it comes to appointments in the apex court, but as a tradition it has been.
Supreme Court sources told ThePrint that Justice Trivedi took precedence over Justice Qureshi because of his vast experience as a judge.
“She is at present the only qualified HC judge who has also served the lower judiciary, and was always under consideration for her service experience. There have been very few judges from the subordinate judiciary who have reached the apex court. Hence, her It was deemed appropriate to recommend the promotion,” said one of the sources.
The source further said that the list prepared by the collegium is quite diverse, as it has three women judges, one nomination from the Bar, one OBC judge and one judge from the Scheduled Caste category.
“When Justice Ramana took over as the CJI, he, in his interaction with the Chief Justices of all High Courts, emphasized that there should be more representation of women on the bench as well as from the SC and OBC categories. The recommendations of the Supreme Court reflect their vision for a fresh start in the judiciary,” the source said.
Read also: India may get its first woman CJI in 2027 as SC collegium recommends promotion of 3 women judges
resolution of collegium
The Memorandum of Procedure (MOP) – a document that sets out the procedure for appointment of judges in SCs – is silent on how many high court judges can become judges of the apex court. But in 2015 a decision of the Constitution Bench was gave advice Equitable regional representation in the apex court.
It is believed that the appointment of Justice Qureshi to the apex court was one of the reasons for the standoff among the members of the collegium, when the then CJI SA Bobde was leading it. As a collegium member, Justice RF Nariman, who demitted office on August 12, is said to have insisted that keeping in view the seniority of Justice Qureshi, he should be appointed as a judge of the apex court. should be done, not removed.
The collegium’s proposal for promotion came on August 21, a week after Justice Nariman retired.
Qureshi – Judge who sent Amit Shah to police custody
Justice Qureshi, who in 2010 sent Amit Shah, now the Union Home Minister, to police custody for his alleged involvement in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, was appointed the Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court on 16 November 2019. The Supreme Court Collegium had proposed his name for the post on 5 September 2019 while he was a judge of the Gujarat High Court.
But at the same time, it withdrew its May 2019 resolution recommending Justice Qureshi as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which has 40 judges. This was done after the central government objected to the nomination of Justice Qureshi as the head of the Madhya Pradesh High Court – a larger high court than Tripura, which has five judges.
(Edited by Neha Mahajan)
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