The Centre has, reportedly, rejected the recommendation of the Supreme Court Collegium to elevate senior advocate Indu Malhotra and Justice KM Joseph to the apex court.
According to a report by The New Indian Express, instead of forwarding the proposal to President Ram Nath Kovind, the Law Ministry sent it back to the Collegium.
The reason for the rejection isn’t clear yet, says the report.
The Collegium’s decision to recommend Malhotra for the elevation had made news as the senior lawyer would have been the first woman advocate to be directly appointed as a judge of the apex court.
The recommendation, which was made on 10 January, came just two days ahead of the unprecedented press conference held by four Supreme Court judges – Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph. However, it was only on 22 January that Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra formally forwarded it to the Union government.
In 2016, Uttarakhand Chief Justice KM Joseph had set aside the imposition of President’s Rule in the state, restoring a Congress government, and reportedly causing much embarrassment to the Centre.
Justice Joseph was appointed as Permanent Judge of the Kerala High Court in 2004 and later transferred to Uttarakhand High Court where he assumed charge in 2014 as Chief Justice.
If appointed, Malhotra would have been the seventh woman, since Independence, to serve as an SC judge. At present, Justice R Banumathi is the lone woman judge in the apex court.
Since Independence, only six women judges have made it to the top court as judges.
The first appointment was of Justice M Fathima Beevi in 1989, 39 years after the setting up of the Supreme Court in 1950.
The second woman judge in the Supreme Court was Justice Sujata V Manohar who started her career as a judge from the Bombay High Court and rose to become the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court. She was elevated to the apex court where she remained from 8 November 1994 till 27 August 1999.
Justice Ruma Pal followed Manohar after a gap of almost five months and became the longest-serving woman judge from 8 January 2000 to 2 June 2006.
After her retirement, it took four years to appoint the next woman judge. Justice Gyan Sudha Misra was elevated to the Supreme Court from Jharkhand High Court where she was the Chief Justice. Her tenure in the apex court was from 30 April 2010 to 27 April 2014.
During her stint, she was joined by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, who served the apex court between 13 September 2011 to 29 October 2014. These two judges also created a history by holding the court together as an all-women bench for a day in 2013.
Justice Banumathi, who at present is the only sitting woman judge, had joined on 13 August 2014 and would retire on 19 July 2020.
In the 67-year history of the Supreme Court, there have been only two occasions when it has had two sitting women judges together, the first being Justices Misra and Desai and later Justices Desai and Banumathi.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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