Judiciary, superior: India
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Elevation of High Court Chief Justices to Supreme Court
From the archives of The Times of India 2010
Retired hurt: Does Justice Shah have valid cause to complain?
Since 2000, 43 CJs Of 18 High Courts Couldn’t Make It To SC
Dhananjay Mahapatra
Abowler is allowed to aim two bouncers per over at batsmen. Sometimes, the bouncers catch batsmen by surprise and they either lose their wicket or get hurt. But no batsman complains about the rule that allows fast bowlers to hurl bouncers. At least, Rahul Dravid did not when he was felled by a nasty bouncer from Shahadat Hossain in Bangladesh.
Justice A P Shah played a good innings as a high court judge and as the Chief Justice of Delhi HC. Some former Chief Justices of India, who despite not having ever evaluated him as a judge or seen him from close quarters, also gave him good grades. Unlike Dravid, he retired recently and made it public that he was terribly hurt at not being elevated to the Supreme Court. He also complained about lack of transparency in the selection of judges to the top court.
The system, transparent or not, has always been there and Shah was chosen as a judge of the HC through that. Can anyone be seen complaining that there was a better choice available at the time Shah was appointed as a judge?
There are 16,609 trial court judges, who look forward to promotion as HC judges at some point in their career. But there are only 886 posts of HC judges. So, many of them retire as district judges without ever becoming an HC judge. Should all of them start questioning the selection process?
From among the 886 HC judges, only 26 used to be elevated to the Supreme Court, whose strength has now been increased to 31. An overwhelming majority of HC judges genuinely think they have the mettle to make it to the SC.
Most retire disappointed. Justice Shah will be surprised to know that since 2000, as many as 43 chief justices of 18 HCs have retired without being elevated to the apex court. But no one else aired a grievance in public against the system.
This is not to say that Justice Shah may not have a genuine grievance against his non-elevation to the SC. Let’s go by his suggestion that the system is non-transparent and hence, many a person gets eliminated. There is a sordid flip side, if all material considered by the collegium relating to appointment or elevation of a judge were to be made public.
The material could include unsubstantiated and wild allegations levelled against a judge. If they were to be made public, there could never be any elevation nor appointment to the HCs or to the SC. For, the collegium is yet to consider an appointment or elevation of a judge when it did not receive a letter containing complaints against the person concerned.
All of these proposed considerations for appointment or elevation concern either a district judge, a senior advocate or a HC judge or chief justice. What happens to his future, if such complaints are made public? Would he be able to lead a normal professional life, given the prevailing climate of suspicion where the shadow is always longer than the object?
Justice Shah should take a lesson or two from two great left-arm spinners — Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar. While Goel had a first-class wicket tally of 640, Shivalkar had 589. Yet, both of them never played Tests for India. Their ability with the ball was eclipsed by the awesome spin quartet — Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrashekar and Venkatraghavan — that operated during those days. Both Goel and Shivalkar played for nearly 30 years in the domestic circuit and retired graciously.
Be it cricket or judiciary, not every selection can be explained nor can every rejection be logical. Celebrated US Supreme Court Judge, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, once said, ‘‘The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.’’
Quashing circulars issued by CJ
From the archives of The Times of India 2010
HC quashes three circulars issued by CJ Dinakaran
Bangalore: Karnataka HC has struck down three circulars issued by its Chief Justice P D Dinakaran against whom allegations of land-grabbing have been raised. The first circular that was quashed by a division bench, comprising Justice N Kumar and Justice Srinivasagowda yesterday, concerned the Chief Justice’s power to hear cases filed by employees of high court and judicial officers against his administrative decisions.
The second circular that was struck down related to the sitting Chief Justice’s jurisdiction in deciding which circuit bench should hear a particular case.
The judgement paves the way for litigants in north Karnataka to approach the principal bench directly, which they could not do earlier. According to the first circular, cases by court employees and judicial officers challenging the Chief Jutice’s orders were posted to hall one, where the CJ sits.
Allowing a petition filed by M S Poojari, a peon in the high court, the court said the circular cleared the way for CJ to be a judge in a case where he is also the litigant. PTI
