SC collegium withdraws 12 names for Madras HC

 Dhananjay Mahapatra,TNN | Feb 15, 2014, 03.54 AM IST

NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented move, theSupreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam on Friday withdrew the 12 names it had recommended to the Centre for appointment as judges in Madras High Court, taking into account the massive controversy it had sparked over the selection criteria. 

The animosity caused by the 12 names was such that during hearing of a petition challenging the selection criteria in Madras HC, a sitting judge of the HC, Justice C S Karnan, walked into the court room and openly sided with the issue raised in the petition. 

Justice Karnan had made an appearance before a division bench of Justice V Dhanapalan and Justice K K Sasidharan which was hearing senior advocate R Gandhi's PIL and said he would file an affidavit describing the selection as unfair. The bench had ordered status quo on appointment. The HC had challenged its own interim order before the Supreme Court. 

At a time when the apex court was seized of the matter on the judicial side, the collegium of three senior-most judges of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Sathasivam decided to withdraw the names and send it back to the chief justice of the high court for reconsideration. 

These names had come to the apex court collegium when Justice R K Agrawal was chief justice of the high court. The collegium based its decision to withdraw the 12 names on two developments - one, there had been unprecedented opposition to the recommendation and second, Justice Agrawal was elevated to the Supreme Court as a judge.

The collegium sent its decision withdrawing the December recommendation to law minister Kapil Sibal on Friday evening and said it had not expressed any opinion on the merits of the selection of the 12 names. 

It said since Justice Agrawal had been elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court, in fairness of the scheme of things, the names should be considered afresh by the new chief justice. 

The Supreme Court on January 13 had stayed the HC's January 8 order directing status quo in the appointment process of the 12 as judges of Madras HC. It had also restrained the HC from proceeding further with the hearing on Gandhi's PIL and asked why it should not be transferred to the SC. 

Appearing for the Madras HC registrar general, who had appealed against the HC order, attorney general G E Vahanvati had said the SC had settled the law on this issue to rule that the suitability of a person to be appointed as judge could not be questioned before the HC or the SC.

The AG had said, "The process is such that it could not be questioned judicially. Judicial review could be undertaken only on two grounds lack of eligibility of a person to be appointed as a judge and lack of proper consultation among the constitutional authorities part of the process of selection of judges." 
Referring to the surprise intervention by a sitting judge of the HC during the proceedings, Vahanvati had said, "It is a serious matter." Of the 12 names recommended earlier for appointment as judges, 10 are practicing advocates and two are from subordinate judiciary.