Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi also appealed to the collegium to reiterate its recommendation in favour of Justice Joseph. Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi also appealed to the collegium to reiterate its recommendation in favour of Justice Joseph.

The Congress on Friday prodded the Supreme Court collegium to stop recommending any more names for appointment as judges until the government cleared the appointment of Uttarakhand Chief Justice K M Joseph in the apex court.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi also recalled the combativeness shown by then chief election commissioner T N Seshan against the then Congress government at the Centre headed by P V Narasimha Rao in the 1990s and appealed the SC collegium to do the same.

The party asked the collegium to reiterate its recommendation of Justice Joseph and alleged that he was not being appointed because of his 2016 verdict quashing imposition of President’s Rule in Uttarakhand and restoring the Congress government.

Former Law minister Ashwani Kumar said reasons offered by the government to “scuttle the elevation” of Justice Joseph are wholly untenable. “The decision is an aberration viewed in the particular context of this case,” he said.

Singhvi also appealed to the collegium to reiterate its recommendation in favour of Justice Joseph, as also to seek reasons from the government for the four-and-a-half-month delay in rejecting its recommendation, and ask for the reason and rationale and “under what power” the government segregated the cases of then senior advocate Indu Malhotra, who took oath as an SC judge on Friday, and Justice Joseph.

“It is time judiciary stood firm… and make it clear that no further appointment will me made unless and until its recommendee, who is reiterated for recommendation, is appointed,” Singhvi said.

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