New Delhi: A five-judge collegium of the Supreme Court met on Tuesday, August 2, to begin the process of appointing the next Chief Justice of India, according to reports.
Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, who heads this collegium, will retire on August 26. Its other members include Justices U.U. Lalit, D.Y. Chandrachud, and Sanjay K. Kaul and S. Abdul Nazeer.
Times of India has reported that the collegium could not “arrive at a consensus” on filling the three vacant Supreme Court judge posts or on the appointment or transfer of Chief Justices of the high court during the meeting.
The meeting was over and hour and 15 minutes long and led to speculation among lawyers, reported TOI.
“The Supreme Court usually starts at 10:30 am and lawyers wait for judges to arrive. But it was only at 11:15 am that judges of court No. 1 to 5 finally reached their benches,” NDTV reported, describing the meeting’s duration as “rare”.
Indian Express, however, noted that the judges, who did discuss some names for appointments to the Supreme Court, thought it would be “more prudent to wait until the next CJI takes over”.
Express has also reported that the Supreme Court Public Relations Officer has said that “no note/letter regarding recommendation of (the) successor (has been) received in the office of the Hon’ble Chief Justice.”
Justice U.U. Lalit is next in line, as the seniormost judge of the apex court, to be appointed CJI.
TOI has reported that the law ministry’s delay in writing to CJI Ramana, seeking recommendation of Justice Lalit’s name as next CJI led to “tensions” at the meeting.
