ON Tuesday, the Supreme Court Collegium recommended to the Union government the appointment of the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court K. Vinod Chandran as judge of the Supreme Court.
Justice Chandran hails from the High Court of Kerala and is the senior judge of that court. He is at number 13 in the combined all-India seniority list of high court judges.
The collegium comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justices B.R. Gavai, Surya Kant, Hrishikesh Roy and Abhay S. Oka noted in their recommendation that it took into consideration the fact that there was no representation on the Bench of the Supreme Court from the High Court of Kerala. Until recently, Justice C.T. Ravikumar represented the High Court of Kerala in the Supreme Court. Justice Ravikumar retired on January 5.
At present, the Supreme Court Bench has no representation from the high courts of Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, Meghalaya, Orissa, Sikkim, Tripura and Kerala.
Justice Chandran was appointed as a judge of the High Court of Kerala on November 8, 2011, and was elevated as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Patna on March 29, 2023, and has been functioning as the Chief Justice of that high court since then.
Before Justice Chandran could be appointed as chief justice of the Patna High Court, there had been twists and turns.
On September 28, 2022, the collegium had recommended the transfer of Justice Chandran from the Kerala High Court to the Bombay High Court. Even as this recommendation remained ineffective as the Union government did not approve it, the collegium in December 2023 recommended his elevation as chief justice of the Gauhati High Court.
However, the government did not act upon this recommendation. Later, the collegium modified its recommendation. This time, it said Justice Chandran should be appointed as Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, and this recommendation was approved by the Union government.
Justice Chandran, presiding over a division Bench of the Patna High Court, struck down the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Amendment Act, 2023 and the Bihar Reservation (in Admission to Educational Institutions) Amendment Act, 2023 as ultra vires the Constitution of India and violative of the equality clause under Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution.
The Bihar legislature had enhanced the total reservations to 65 percent through the 2023 Amendment Act to the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 1991.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice K.V. Chandran and Justice Partha Sarthy also upheld the caste-based survey and allowed the Bihar government to continue with the survey. The court found the state’s action “initiated with due competence”, and “not having violated the rights of privacy of the individual especially since it is in the furtherance of a compelling public interest’’.
The Supreme Court Collegium on Tuesday also recommended the transfer of the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya as Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and Chief Justice of Telangana High Court Alok Aradhe as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court. It is not in the public domain for what reasons the collegium chose to make this reshuffle.