The Supreme Court collegium on Wednesday once again deferred the decision to reiterate its recommendation for the elevation of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph to the top court.
Sources said the collegium met to deliberate on several issues, including reconsidering the name of Justice Joseph for elevation to the apex court, after it was returned by the Central government.
But, as no decision could be taken on elevation of other judges to the apex court, the two-hour collegium meeting also deferred the decision for reiteration of elevation of Justice Joseph to the Supreme Court, said court sources.
The collegium comprises Chief Justice Dipak Misra and four other senior-most judges of the apex court — Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph.
This was the Collegium’s second meeting in five days.
At its last meeting on May 11, the Collegium had agreed in principle to reiterate its recommendation for elevating Justice Joseph as a judge of the apex court, almost three weeks after it was returned by the Centre.
It had then adopted a resolution which stated that there was need for further discussion on the issue of sending the other names to the Centre.
It had then also decided to consider the names of other High Court Judges for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court.
Official sources said those high court judges who are in the race to be elevated to the apex court are Chief Justice of Madras High Court Indira Banerjee, who is originally from the Calcutta HC; Gujarat HC Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy, whose parent cadre is Telangana and Andhra Pradesh HC, and Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, who is originally from Rajasthan HC.
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.
(With inputs from agencies)