The Collegium overrules Centre’s objections

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]HE Supreme Court Collegium, comprising the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, Justices S A Bobde, N V Ramana, Arun Mishra and Rohinton F Nariman in its meeting held on May 8, 2019 has decided to turn down the objections raised by the Central Government to its recommendation of Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court, Aniruddha Bose and the Chief Justice of Gauhati, A S Bopanna as judges of the Supreme Court.

“The Collegium is of the view that, as laid down by the Supreme Court in its Opinion in Re: Special Reference No.1 of 1998 reported in (1998) 7 SCC 739, though inter-se seniority amongst Judges in their High Courts and their combined seniority on all-India basis should be given due weightage, merit should be the predominant consideration. The Collegium accordingly kept in mind these parameters while recommending the above two names,” reads the resolution, while reiterating its recommendation dated April 12, 2019 for the elevation of the two judges to the Supreme Court.

The Collegium said nothing adverse regarding the competence, conduct or integrity of Justices Aniruddha Bose, and  A.S. Bopanna, had been pointed out by the Centre while returning the recommendations to the Supreme Court.

It may be noted that the Collegium’s resolution does not disclose the reasons pointed out by the Centre while seeking reconsideration of Collegium’s recommendation.

 

Read the resolution 

[pdfviewer]https://cdn.theleaflet.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/09152307/2019-May-08-SC-Apptt.-Reconsideration.pdf[/pdfviewer]