The Supreme Court collegium – a group of five most-senior judges – is likely to meet at 1 pm today to discuss the issue of reconsidering the name of Uttarakhand Chief Justice K M Joseph for elevation to the apex court, which was rejected by the Centre in April.
News agency PTI quoted official sources saying that the members of the Collegium have been in consultation over the issue and Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra is likely to convene the meeting today.
It is pertinent to mention that Justice J Chelameswar, the senior-most judge of the apex court, had on Wednesday written a letter to the CJI asking him to convene the Collegium's meeting to urgently forward Justice Joseph's name to the Centre.
Here are the LIVE updates:
03:01 pm: SC Collegium concludes meeting to reconsider elevation of Uttarakhand HC CJ K M Joseph as apex court judge
In its last meeting on May 2, the collegium had reportedly decided to draft a point-by-point rejoinder to the Centre that questioned their choice.
The government had on April 26 returned the Collegium's recommendation to elevate Justice Joseph seeking its reconsideration, saying the proposal was not in accordance with the top court's parameters and there was adequate representation of Kerala in the higher judiciary from where he hails. It had also questioned his seniority for elevation as a judge of the apex court.
According to an apex court official, Justice Chelameswar, in his letter sent to the CJI late last evening, has conveyed that he was reiterating his decision for the elevation of Justice Joseph as the judge of the top court as there was no change in the circumstances that had led the Collegium to recommend his name to the government on January 10.
It is also learnt that Justice Chelameswar, who retires on June 22, has responded to all the points raised in the communication to the CJI by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad expressing reservations on the elevation of Justice Joseph.
The meeting of the Collegium was expected to take place on Wednesday but Justice Chelameswar was on leave. Besides the CJI and Justice Chelameswar, other members of the collegium are Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph.
Justice Kurian Joseph, during his visit to Kerala last week, had also reportedly made it clear that he was in favour of reiterating the recommendation of the collegium on the issue of Uttarakhand Chief Justice Joseph.
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