SC collegium proposal on Justice Joseph: Government's regional representation logic doesn't hold water

NEW DELHI: One of the reasons cited by the government for refusing to accept the Supreme Court collegium's recommendation to appoint Justice K M Joseph to the apex court was that it would distort regional representation in the highest court.

Justice Joseph's rejection (his parent HC is Kerala), on the ground that the SC already had a judge, Justice Kurian Joseph, from Kerala HC is not commensurate with the current composition of the SC.

Currently, three judges in the SC out of 25 are from Delhi HC, three from Bombay HC and two each from the HCs of Allahabad, MP, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The government, however, argued that Kerala HC is a small court and its representation must take into account chief justices of HCs along with the SC.

The HCs of Kerala, Odisha, Gauhati, Punjab & Haryana, Madras, Patna and Himachal Pradesh have one judge each in the SC. The four other judges were elevated from the bar, including the newly-appointed Indu Malhotra. If affiliation with states where they practised is taken into account, representation of Delhi and Bombay HCs would further increase.



Ten HCs — Calcutta, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, J&K, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Manipur and Meghalaya — having no representation in the SC at present.

Since 2010, there has been no judge in the apex court from the Scheduled Castes, a law ministry official said. The issue also found mention in law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's letter to the CJI on Thursday where he said, "There is no representation of SCs/STs in the Supreme Court since long."

With Malhotra's appointment, the SC's working strength has increased to 25, but it is still left with six vacancies. Half a dozen more vacancies will arise this year with three judges retiring in the next three months — Justices R K Agarwal (May 4), J Chelameswar (June 22) and A K Goel (July 6). Three more, CJI Dipak Misra and Justices Kurian Joseph and Madan Lokur, will retire in October, November and December respectively.

In his letter to the CJI, Prasad said, "At this stage, elevation of one more judge from Kerala HC does not appear to be justified as it does not address the legitimate claims of chief justices and judges of many other HCs and forestalls the claim of other senior chief justices and judges."