There is no precedent: SC judge

The Union government should not have returned the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium to elevate Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court K.M. Joseph to the Supreme Court, Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph said on Sunday.

Justice Kurian, a member of the Supreme Court collegium, said that sending back the recommendation, picking out just one name from the list had never happened earlier. Hence, debates had been triggered on the issue.

Talking to mediapersons after releasing an autobiography of veteran trade union leader Thampan Thomas, Justice Kurian expressed hope that the collegium would discuss steps to be taken to ensure that such thing did not happen in future.

The five-judge collegium led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had recently deferred its decision on the government’s objections to the elevation of K.M. Joseph to the Supreme Court.