In the backdrop of over a hundred recommendations for appointment to higher judiciary pending with the Centre, the Supreme Court collegium has stood its ground with regard to a recommendation made for appointment of an additional judge as permanent judge in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, reiterating the name to the Union government after the file proposing it was sent back to the Chief Justice of India.
The SC collegium at its meeting on Tuesday decided to reiterate the recommendation for appointment of Justice Ramendra Jain, Additional Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, as a permanent judge in the court.
The resolution of the collegium with regard to the recommendation stated that it had gone through the observations made by the government in the file referred back to CJI Dipak Misra for reconsideration, and decided to reiterate the proposal, especially when no specific reason except the issue of his transfer has been recorded in the file.
The collegium referred to the minutes of its earlier meeting on July 12, 2017, in which it had recorded specific reasons to retain the judge in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which are that he has been performing well in the court and no information warranting his transfer has come to it, and the depleted judge-strength ratio of the high court also has to be kept in view.
The resolution also stated that the collegium feels it would only be appropriate that the proposal for appointment of Jain as permanent judge of the high court is processed most expeditiously keeping in view the fact that his current term as additional judge is going to expire on April 19, 2018.
There is a sense of outrage in the higher judiciary with regard to the recommendations for appointments to the high courts and the Supreme Court pending with the government for months on end. Justices J Chemaleswar and Kurian Joseph recently, in separate letters, to the CJI, raised the issue. Joseph especially cited the cases of Justice K.M. Joseph and senior advocate Indu Malhotra, whose names were recommended for appointment as SC judges around three months back, but the proposal is still pending with the Centre.