(FE)
The Supreme Court collegium comprising five-senior most judges will meet today to discuss the choice of elevating Uttarakhand Chief Justice KM Joseph to the rank of a judge in the top court. The collegium headed by CJI Dipak Misra will meet at 1 pm, The Indian Express reported. The meeting comes a day after Justice J Chelameswar, the second senior-most judge, wrote a letter to the CJI asking him to convene the collegium’s meeting to urgently reiterate Justice KM Joseph’s name.
In its last meeting that was held on May 2, the collegium had deferred the decision to consider reiteration the Justice KM Joseph’s name. It was on January 10 this year, the collegium had recommended to the Centre to elevate Justice Joseph to the rank of a judge. The second name that it had forwarded to the Centre was of then senior lawyer Indu Malhotra. While the Centre on April 26 notified the appointment of Malhotra as a judge, it asked the collegium to reconsider its decision on Justice KM Joseph. The Centre had cited seniority, representation from Kerala and lack of representation from the SC/ST in the court to stall Justice Joseph’s file.
