PMO refers back three HC judges' elevation proposal

In a rare move, the Prime Minister's Office has referred back to the Law Ministry a file containing Supreme Court collegium's recommendations over elevation of three High Court judges to the apex court, a development described by ministry officials as "unusual". With Law Minister H R Bhardwaj reported to be out of town for the next four days, it may take some time for the file, which has reached his office, to be sent to Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, who heads the collegium. An official said the collegium's recommendations being referred back is rarely done. "But they are well within the right to raise questions about the decision," said the official about the clarification sought by the PMO over the collegium decision to elevate the three judges. The matter pertains to the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium for appointment of Kerala HC Chief Justice H L Dattu, Madras HC Chief Justice A K Ganguly and Patna HC Chief Justice R M Lodha as apex court judges. Government feels that while recommending the elevation of these three judges, the collegium has overlooked the case of their seniors, Delhi HC Chief Justice A P Shah, Madhya Pradesh HC Chief Justice A K Patnaik and Uttarakhand HC Chief Justice V K Gupta, for appointment to the apex court. The PMO's move comes at a time when the generally accepted convention followed since 1993 when the collegium system came into existence through an SC decision has been to forward the CJI's proposal to the President, without riders. Ministry officials said the observations of the PMO in the file carrying recommendations for elevation of Justices Dattu, Ganguly and Lodha would be shared with the CJI and there is little role for them in the process. "We have no role in the recommendation process so we are out of the picture even when these are referred back," said the official. The appointment of judges in the Supreme Court is made in pursuance to the apex court's judgement of 6th October, 1993, according to which the proposals are initiated and recommended by the Chief Justice of India. In 1993, Chief Justice of India J S Verma had laid down the law on the role of collegium in judicial appointments. In the pre-1993 situation, judges were appointed by the President on the CJI's recommendations. Last month, Bhardwaj while talking about judicial appointments had said "I am for restoration of primacy of the Chief Justice of India in the Supreme Court". "There is no provision in the Constitution to bring in other people," he said while favouring that judges should be appointed by judges. The parliamentary standing committee on law and justice had recently called for transparency in judicial appointments and suggested a relook at the in-house system of the judiciary to appoint judges through collegium. Attempts to question the collegium system have been criticised by legal experts and former CJIs. Experts, including former CJI J S Verma, have maintained that those who want to disturb the collegium system are "ignorant" about the view of the framers of the Constitution and their oral statements would not have any bearing on the existing law which can only be changed by the apex court or Parliament

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