Aastha Thakur
Published on: 10 October 2022 at 23:03 IST
In response to rumours surrounding the Supreme Court collegium meeting held on September 30, the members of the collegium issued a joint statement stating that the meeting had been adjourned in light of the Union Law Minister‘s October 7 letter to Chief Justice of India UU Lalit requesting the appointment of his successor.
The statement released today stated, “In the circumstances, no further steps need be taken and the unfinished work in the meeting called for September 30, 2022 is closed without there being any further deliberation. The meeting dated September 30, 2022 stands discharged”,
According to the statement, Justices DY Chandrachud and Abdul Nazeer objected to the letter that CJI Lalit had sent out asking for their opinions on potential candidates for the Supreme Court. The two judges were against the circulation-based selection and appointment of judges.
Due to Justice Chandrachud’s absence, the physical meeting that was set for September 30 at 4.30 PM was unable to take place. It should be mentioned that Justice Chandrachud kept his court session open on September 30 till 9.15 p.m.
Since there was no actual meeting, CJI Lalit wrote to the collegium members on September 30 to ask for their opinions on the recommendations.
Through letters dated 01-10-2022 and 07-10-2022, Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K.M. Joseph, two members of the collegium, expressed their support for the ideas.
Justices Chandrachud and S. Abdul Nazeer objected to the approach used in the CJI’s letter from 30.09.2022, in separate letters dated 01-10-2022. They did not, however, express any opinions against any of these candidates; rather, they objected to the method of gathering opinions through the distribution of letters.
After afterwards, on October 2, CJI Lalit wrote to these two justices once more to ask for justifications or other ideas. The aforementioned communication received no reaction.
In the interim, the CJI received a letter from the Union Law Minister dated October 7, 2022 asking him to designate his replacement to take over the position of CJI from November 9, 2022.
In light of this, the Collegium resolved to adjourn the meeting on September 30 without taking any further action.
The collegium had agreed to the request to promote Justice Dipankar Dutta, the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, to the Supreme Court at the meeting that was conducted on September 26. The consideration of 10 additional judges, however, was postponed until September 30.
At the meeting on September 26, a new method was adopted with the support of all members. It calls for the distribution of the evaluations written by the potential candidates and an impartial evaluation of their relative worth.