Center Writes To CJI Gogoi; Asks SC Collegium to Reconsider Justice Kureshi For Any Other HC Other Than MP High Court

The central government has returned the Supreme Court collegium’s recommendation to elevate Justice Akil Kureshi as Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The law ministry has written to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi that Justice Kureshi may be considered for some other high court, other than the MP High Court.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had stated that it had received a communication from the Ministry of Law and Justice on the collegium’s recommendation elevating Justice Akil Kureshi as the chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has stated that his office had received a communication from the ministry which would be placed before the collegium to take a call on it.

On August 16, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had told the Supreme Court that the center would take a call within a week on the collegium’s recommendation to elevate Justice Kureshi as the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Previously, the Gujarat High Court Advocates’ Association (GHCAA) had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking direction to the center to notify the elevation of Justice Kureshi.

The lawyers’ body alleged that while the center had cleared the appointment of chief justices of other high courts, the center had not cleared the file for appointment of Justice Kureshi and had on June 7 came out with a notification appointing Justice Ravi Shanker Jha as Acting Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The lawyers’ body also alleged that the inaction by the center threatened the independence of the judiciary and eroded the primacy of the judiciary in the matters of appointment and transfer of judges to the high courts and the Supreme Court.

Representing the association, senior advocate Fali Nariman had questioned the “unexplained” delay by the government in taking a call on Justice Kureshi’s elevation.

Nariman had criticized the “deliberate inaction” by the government regarding the appointment of Justice Kureshi as chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh high court, which was recommended by the collegium on May 10 this year along with three other recommendations for appointment of chief justices in the high courts of Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi.

The petition by the GHCAA highlighted that 18 other additional judges of different high courts had been appointed after May 10.

Incidentally, Justice Kureshi had in 2010 remitted the current Union home minister, Amit Shah, to police custody for two days for his role in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake case.