Justice Kureshi, who ruled against Amit Shah, could lose out on SC stint despite seniority

New Delhi, August 24, 2021 (PPI-OT):With the Supreme Court collegium recommending the name of a sitting Gujarat High Court judge for elevation to the top court, the chances of Justice Akil Kureshi’s elevation to the top court have become dim.

Kureshi, who is currently Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court, is number two in the all-India judges’ seniority list. He has earlier served as a judge in the Bombay High Court and the Gujarat High Court.

The Supreme Court collegium – the appointment panel led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) and comprising the top four senior judges after him – on 21 August cleared nine names for the top court. The recommendations have been sent to the central government for formal notification.

While the collegium chose Justice Abhay Oka, chief justice of the Karnataka High Court, whose name is on the top in the judges’ seniority list, it did not include Justice Kureshi.

The others recommended for elevation are Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Vikram Nath, Gujarat High Court judge Justice Bela M. Trivedi, Sikkim High Court Chief Justice J.K. Maheshwari, Telangana High Court’s Justice Hima Kohli, Karnataka High Court judge B.V. Nagarathna, Kerala High Court judge Justice C.T. Ravi Kumar, Madras High Court judge Justice M.M. Sundresh, and senior advocate P.S. Narasimha.

Though Justice Kureshi retires in March next year and there will be two vacancies in the top court before he demits office, sources in the top court said it is unlikely that his name will be proposed. This is because by then there will already be two judges on the Supreme Court bench who count the Gujarat High Court as their parent court.

Collegium’s resolution

The Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) – a document that sets out the procedure for the appointment of judges to the SC – is silent on how many judges from a high court can become apex court judges. But a Constitution bench judgment in 2015 had advised equitable regional representation in the top court.

It is believed Justice Kureshi’s appointment to the top court was one of the reasons for the impasse between the collegium members when the then CJI S.A. Bobde was heading it. As a collegium member, Justice R.F. Nariman, who demitted office on 12 August, is said to have insisted that keeping Justice Kureshi’s seniority in mind, he should be appointed as a judge to the apex court and not superseded.

The collegium’s 21 August resolution on elevation came a little over a week after Justice Nariman retired.

Kureshi – judge who sent Amit Shah to police custody

Justice Kureshi, who in 2010 had sent Amit Shah, now the Union Home Minister, to police custody for his alleged involvement in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh Encounter case, was appointed as the Chief Justice of Tripura High Court on 16 November 2019. The Supreme Court collegium had on 5 September 2019 proposed his name for this post while he was a Gujarat High Court judge.

But along with that, it had recalled its May 2019 resolution, recommending Justice Kureshi as the chief justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court, which has 40 judges. This was done after the central government objected to Justice Kureshi’s nomination as the head of the Madhya Pradesh High Court – a larger high court compared to Tripura, which has five judges.

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