CJI’s worst moment
Recommendation On Dinakaran Being Shelved
Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN
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New Delhi: Caustic criticism and all-round opposition to the collegium’s
recommendation to elevate Karnataka Chief Justice P D Dinakaran to the Supreme
Court, finally being put on hold, was one of the worst moments for Chief
Justice of India K G Balakrishnan in his three years in the top post.
No other recommendation relating to appointment of judges to the apex court
had attracted such vociferous dissent in past three years.
TOI asked Justice Balakrishnan, who completed three years in office on
Wednesday, what his best and worst moments were in the period he had been the
head of judiciary.
He did not want to mention his best moments. “The best moments have to be
pointed out by those watching the judiciary. There were many. But to identify a
single incident as the one that gave me greatest pleasure would be difficult,”
he said.
On the worst moment, he had no hesitation admitting that it was when the
“collegium’s decisions were challenged seriously”. This is a clear indication
that he was referring to the recommendation relating Justice Dinakaran, though
he stressed the collegium had scrupulously followed the procedure before
sending his name to the government for elevation to the SC.
The CJI also did not favour crowding the apex court with more judges even as
filing and pendency grows steadily. “The present strength of 30 judges and a
CJI is ideal. But filing of new cases will soon touch 1 lakh per year requiring
more judges. That is why it would be ideal to create a constitutional court in
Delhi and four Supreme Courts in east, west, south and north to provide third
appeal facility nearer to litigants,” he said.
On a woman judge in Supreme Court, the CJI said he was confident that one would
be appointed before the apex court achieved full strength of 30 judges.
Lawyers appeal to CJI
Bangalore: While welcoming the verdict of the full Bench of Delhi HC which
ruled that the office of the CJI comes under the ambit of RTI, the forum of
senior advocates of Karnataka HC has appealed to the CJI not to challenge the
same.
“We welcome the decision. We are of the opinion that both the CJI and Centre
should gracefully accept the verdict. The decision is in tune with Constitution
of India, a path breaking one as well as historic. There is no need to file an
appeal donning the robes of an ordinary litigant,” they said in the appeal .
TNN
