SCBA appoints Indu Malhotra as the first woman SC judge

ThePrint has learnt that the two judges have conveyed this to CJI Misra, hours after the Modi government wrote to him Thursday asking the collegium to reconsider its decision to elevate Joseph to the apex court.

The Central government has asked the top court collegium to reconsider its recommendation for the elevation of Justice KM Joseph as a judge of the Supreme Court, but cleared the appointment of senior lawyer Indu Malhotra.

Mixed emotions are rife in the legal fraternity concerning Senior Counsel Indu Malhotra’s elevation to the Supreme Court, and the return of Justice K.M. Joseph’s nomination.

He said the government should first explain why it sat on the recommendation for four months. In 1988, she placed first in the examination to qualify as an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court, and received the Mukesh Goswami Memorial Prize on Law Day for that achievement. The Union government has no role to play in the selections other than to conduct an inquiry by the Intelligence Bureau into the candidate’s background.

He also spelt out that the Memorandum of Procedure while laying out the terms of engagement between the Centre and the judiciary does not talk of segregation but the “settled convention is that the government can not segregate the names”.

The government’s decision has evoked sharp reactions with the Supreme Court Bar Association President terming it as “disturbing” and the opposition Congress party asserting that the independence of the judiciary “is in danger”. The government’s “seniority argument” however has been used “conveniently and inter-changeably, either cited as per initial appointment as a Judge or as a Chief Justice”, as an argument to push or nix names of judges. Justice Joseph is India’s senior most chief justice.

However, the issue of seniority of Justice Joseph which has been raised by the Centre was, in fact, considered extensively by the Collegium itself as is evident from its resolution recommending him. Lawyers of at least four High Courts (Orissa, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Calcutta) have already resorted to strikes to protest against the burgeoning vacancies.

But in the meantime, Subramanium withdrew his consent to be recommended for the judgeship.

Sibal further said, “Government wants only those judges of their choice”. Even if we accept their contention that their appointment with the Naidu had been fixed a week ago, it assumed huge political significance in the backdrop of the verdict dismissing the petitions demanding a probe into Loya’s death by a bench headed by none other than the chief justice. If this were true it cuts right to the heart of judicial independence. She has also represented statutory bodies like SEBI, DDA and more before the Supreme Court.

The petition said the CJI’s authority as the master of roster is “not an absolute, arbitrary, singular power that is vested in the Chief Justice alone and which may be exercised with his sole discretion”.

Sources here told DNA that the segregation has upset many judges.

The statement, jointly signed by 100 top Supreme Court lawyers, called upon President Ram Nath Kovind to ‘forthwith issue warrants of appointment of both learned judges’.

The Big Scroll ” Conspiracy theories aside, the caste matrix of Chamundeshwari presents a challenge to Siddaramaiah’s politics of AHINDA – the Kannada acronym for Alpasankhyataru or minorities, Hindulidavaru or backward classes, and Dalitaru or Dalits. Two other judges, which the collegium wanted to transfer, were not transferred.