[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ITH the Central Government dragging its feet on the appointment of Justice Akil Kureshi as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court as recommended by the Supreme Court’s Collegium, the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association (GHCAA) has resolved to form a committee of ten advocates to meet the Union Law Minister to press for a notification to enforce the Collegium’s recommendation.
Describing the delay as an “uncalled for interference by the executive”, the resolution by the GHCAA comes in the wake of the Centre notifying the appointment of Justice Ravi Shanker Jha of the Madhya Pradesh High Court as the acting Chief Justice of that court on June 7, 2019, despite the Collegium’s May 10, 2019recommendation regarding Justice Kureshi.
“..to the utter shock and surprise of the Bar, Justice Akil Kureshi was not appointed as Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh HC on May 22, 2019, along with Justice DN Patel as Chief Justice of Delhi HC and instead, Justice Ravi Shanker Jha was appointed as Acting Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh HC with effect from June 10. This is clearly uncalled for interference by the executive,” the GHCAA resolution says.
The GHCAA has also resolved that if after meeting with the Law Minister there is no change in the government’s stand, they will be left with no option but to abstain from work for a day and also to file a writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution before the Supreme Court.
Justice Kureshi is presently a judge in the Bombay High Court with the Gujarat High Court as his parent high court.
As a judge in the Gujarat High Court, Justice Kureshi had remanded the Bharatiya Janata Party chief and current Home Minister, Amit Shah to police custody for two days in the Sohrabbuddin murder case and in 2011, had also upheld the decision of the Governor to appoint Justice RA Mehta as Gujarat’s Lokayukta, a move that was challenged by the then Narendra Modi-led government in the state.
In November 2018, when the then Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court R Subhash Reddy was elevated as a judge to the Supreme Court, Justice Kureshi, who was the senior-most judge after Justice Reddy, should have assumed the Chief Justice’s office as a matter of practice. However, he was transferred to the Bombay High Court and made the number four-judge there, pursuant to the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommendation.
The GHCAA had at that time opposed the decision of the Collegium and had gone on a day-long strike, following which, Justice Kureshi was appointed the Acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court for two weeks until his date of joining the Bombay High Court.
Read the resolution
[pdfviewer]https://cdn.theleaflet.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/12094744/New-Doc-2019-06-11-23.55.32.pdf[/pdfviewer]
