SC judges meet CJI over Justice K M Joseph seniority issue
New Delhi: The oath-taking ceremony of three judges elevated to the Supreme Court - Justices Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran and K M Joseph - will take place as scheduled on Tuesday in the order of seniority notified by the Centre.
Highly placed sources in the Supreme Court said that nothing much could be done at this stage and the concerns raised by some of the apex court judges would be discussed after the three judges are sworn in on Tuesday.
The sources said except Justice Ranjan Gogoi, a member of the apex court collegium who was on leave; others had "informally" deliberated on the Centre's alleged decision to lower down the seniority of Justice K M Joseph.
However, it was decided that the oath-taking ceremony should take place.
"Let the oath-taking take place. There is no time. The oath-taking can't be deferred. It has to be seen what can be done later," one of the sources said about the discussion that was held among the judges on Monday morning at the judges' lounge before they commenced the day's working in the apex court.
Judges including members of the collegium comprising Justices M B Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A K Sikri met Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
The sources said that the judges were of the view that there was a need to sit together and ponder over the issue.
They said that the CJI, who heads the collegium, assured the judges that he would consult Justice Gogoi who is the senior-most after him and take up the issue with the Centre.
The Centre on Friday last came out with the notification on the appointment of the three judges to the apex court by putting at number three the seniority of Justice K M Joseph.
In the notification, the names of Justice Indira Banerjee, Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, was at number one, followed by that of Justice Vineet Saran, Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court.
It is the convention that seniority of the judges is determined by order of names notified by the government.
The President signed the warrants of appointment of the three judges on August 3.
Justice Joseph's elevation to the apex court put an end to a protracted stand-off between the government and the judiciary.
Justice K M Joseph, the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court, headed a bench which had quashed the imposition of President's Rule in the state in 2016. Uttarakhand was then under the Congress rule.
Facing the heat of opposition as well as judges of the Supreme Court over the issue of lowering the seniority of Justice KM Joseph, the government on Monday came out with facts stating that the decision has been taken as per the law and no 'inappropriate' trend has been followed.
