No confirmation on crucial Collegium meet yet

The much-awaited Supreme Court Collegium meeting to reconsider its recommendation to elevate Uttarakhand Chief Justice K M Joseph, did not take place today, as was being speculated.

An apex court official said while there was a likelihood of the meeting being held today, it was for the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra to fix the date but as of now there is no official word on it.

"There is no official confirmation when the Collegium would meet," the official said, adding that "it is obvious that the agenda of meeting would be the elevation of Justice Joseph to the apex court".

Justice J Chelameswar, the senior-most Supreme Court judge who led a virtual revolt against the CJI, was on leave today.

As a result, he also missed the traditional Wednesday lunch of the judges when one of them takes a turn to bring 'ghar ka khana' (home food) from his or her home state.

The members of the collegium including Justices Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph had expressed concern over the delay of the government in clearing the name of the Uttarakhand Chief Justice as the apex court judge.

Notwithstanding the letters written by the collegium members to the CJI which had come into the public domain, the Centre has disregarded the recommendation about Justice Joseph.

On April 26, the government returned the Collegium's recommendation to elevate Justice Joseph seeking its reconsideration, saying the proposal was not in accordance with the top court's parameters and there was adequate representation of Kerala in the higher judiciary from where he hails.