india

Updated: May 08, 2019 08:25 IST

The Centre has returned the Supreme Court collegium’s recommendation to elevate two judges to the apex court over the issue of seniority, asking the body to reconsider its decision, news agency PTI reported on Tuesday.

The collegium, a body of the Supreme Court’s top five judges headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), recommended the elevation of Jharkhand high court Chief Justice Aniruddha Bose and Gauhati high court Chief Justice AS Bopanna, according to its April 12 resolution. The collegium will meet again to deliberate the issue following the government’s objection, a report by television news channel NDTV said.

Justice Bose, whose parent high court is Calcutta, is at number 12 in the all-India seniority of judges. Justice Bopanna, whose parent high court is Karnataka, stands at number 36.

This is not the first disagreement between the government and the judiciary over the appointment of judges.

Last April, the Centre returned a file recommending justice KM Joseph’s appointment, which was first cleared by the collegium in January 2018. The government contended that justice Joseph was not senior enough and that the Kerala high court, his parent HC, was adequately represented.

His name was reiterated by the collegium in July, eventually leading to the government clearing his appointment. The seniority issue is particularly important if a judge is line to become the future CJI.

In its April 12 resolution recommending the elevation of justices Bose and Bopanna, the collegium said it took into account their merit, integrity and “combined seniority on all-India basis of Chief Justices” and senior judges of HCs.

“The collegium has also kept in mind the desirability of giving due representation on the Bench of the Supreme Court, as far as possible, to all the High Courts,” the resolution said.

If the elevation of the two judges is cleared, the total number of judges in the apex court will go up to 29 against the sanctioned strength of 31.

The Supreme Court and the government have been sparring over appointments ever since the apex court struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Bill in 2015 that said all appointments to the higher judiciary would be made by the NJAC.

The government had passed the bill in 2014. Subsequently, the two sides decided to agree to a Memorandum of Procedure, or MoP, on judicial appointments that would address gaps in the collegium system. Not much progress has taken place on this front.