New Delhi:
The Supreme Court will soon have its full strength of 34 judges with the stage having been set for the elevation of two high court judges, top government sources have confirmed to NDTV. The notices for appointment are expected to be issued in the next few days, sources said.
The top had its full strength last when Ranjan Gogoi was the Chief Justice of India.
The judges who are being elevated were recently recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium. Justice Rajesh Bindal is the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court and Justice Aravind Kumar is the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court .
The government is also processing the appointment of three Chief Justices of High Courts.
The government is yet to respond on the reiteration of five judges to various high courts and take a political call on whether to agree with the Collegium’s recommendations.
Last month, the Supreme Court uploaded its letters to the Centre on its website, refuting the government’s objections on the basis of intelligence agencies’ inputs.
Advocate Saurabh Kirpal was recommended for elevation to the Delhi High Court, Somasekhar Sundaresan to the Bombay High Court and R John Sathyan to the Madras High Court.
In case of Mr Kirpal, the Court rejected both reasons cited — that the candidate is openly gay and his partner is a Swiss national. Rejecting him on these grounds will be manifestly contrary to the constitutional principles, the court said.
The elevation of Somasekhar Sundaresan of the Bombay High Court was rejected over his social media posts. Sources said he had posted critical tweets on the Citizenship Amendment Act. “All citizens have the right to free speech,” the top court had said.
“Expression of views by a candidate does not disentitle him to hold a constitutional office so long as the person proposed for judgeship is a person of competence, merit and integrity,” it added.
Madras High Court lawyer R John Sathiyan had got a negative report from the Intelligence Bureau over his social media posts too. One of these was an article critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
