Controversy over ex-SC judge dominates NJAC proceedings

The controversy over Justice Cyriac Joseph regarding his alleged below-par performance dominated proceedings in the NJAC case in the Supreme Court today with the Centre challenging the information on the number of judgements delivered by the former judge during his tenure.
"My impression was correct. The information is incorrect. The information provided by the registrars of different High Courts to the apex court registry on the judgements delivered by the judge cannot be relied upon," Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi submitted before a five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice J S Khehar.
The Bench, which is examining the constitutional validity of the new law replacing the two-decade-old collegium system of appointment of judges, had yesterday asked the Attorney General to verify the information received by the apex court registry from different high courts about Justice Cyriac Joseph, who retired as the judge of the Supreme Court on January 27, 2012.

Rohatgi said as a judge of the Supreme Court Justice Cyriac Joseph had signed 309 judgements of which he had authored seven while two were cuncurrent verdicts during his tenure of three years, six months and 20 days.
The judge was part of the bench whose other judges were "prolific writers", the law officer said.
The bench intervened and said that senior judges like to author judgements and Justice Joseph did not have a long tenure in the apex court. He headed the bench only for a short duration, it said.