Justice Kureshi case: Govt asserts role in judge appointment

Source: Times of India dated 29.08.2019

(Pradeep Thakur) New Delhi:

Asserting its role in judicial appointments, the Centre has asked the Supreme Court collegium to consider Justice Akil Abdulhamid Kureshi, who has been recommended to be appointed as chief justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court, for some other HC instead.

The law ministry made the suggestion in a letter to the CJI, sources said. The SC collegium had earlier given the government a deadline of August 14 to offer its view on appointing Justice Kureshi as chief justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court.

CJI Ranjan Gogoi said he would place the Centre’s letter before the collegium for a decision. Justice Kureshi is currently a judge of Bombay HC. His parent bench is Gujarat HC where he was first appointed as additional judge in 2004. He will serve as a judge of the HC till 2022.

The SC collegium recommended to the Centre on May 10 to appoint Justice Kureshi as chief justice of MP HC along with three other recommendations for appointment of chief justices in the high courts of Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi.

The government appointed the other three chief justices as per the recommendations of the collegium, except for Justice Kureshi. While the collegium’s recommendation on Justice Kureshi was pending, the government went ahead and notified appointment of Justice Ravi Shanker Jha as acting chief justice of MP HC on June 10.

After the government withheld the recommendation on Justice Kureshi, the Gujarat HC Bar Association filed a petition in the SC seeking a direction to the Centre to implement the collegium’s resolution. The government told the SC on August 2 that it would take a decision after the Parliament session to which the SC kept the petition pending with a direction to the Centre to make the appointment by August 14.

In his first comments after taking charge of the law ministry on June 3, Ravi Shankar Prasad had said he should not be treated as a post office. The minister’s remarks were in reference to appointments to higher judiciary recommended by the Supreme Court collegium.