SC Collegium Recommends ‘Retired District Judges’ As HC Judge For Madhya Pradesh

The Supreme Court (SC) collegium has recommended the appointment of a retired district judge as a judge of the Madhya Pradesh HC. The SC said that legitimate expectations and delay in the selection process, a move that would allow him to serve two years as a constitutional court judge.

SC collegium recommends retiring judges for appointment as judges of 3 HC

Roopesh Chandra Varshney has a special & unique story among the eight district judges and four advocates recommended by the SC collegium for appointment as judges of three high courts. Basically, he had joined the judicial service nearly 36 years ago on September 28, 1987, and had retired from the service.

While elaborating on Varshney’s recommendation, the collegium including the Chief Justice of India, Y Chandrachud and Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph, “On the date of the vacancy against which his name was recommended, Varshney’s age was 58. 03 years and thus qualifies with reference to prescribed age criterion.”

Moreover, the collegiums said, “Having regard to the above and the legitimate expectation based on the long period of service rendered by him, the Collegium is of the considered opinion that Varshney is suitable for appointment as a judge of the HC of Madhya Pradesh.”

Previous appointments

Earlier, only two of the HC retired judges including Justices Fatima Beevi and Bahrul Islam were appointed as the apex court judge.

The other seven recommended names are Anuradha Shukla, Sanjeev Sudhakar Kalgaonkar, Prem Narayan Singh, Achal Kumar Paliwal, Hirdesh, and Avnindra Kumar Singh.

On November 23 last year, the resolution stated, the Chief Justice of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh recommended the elevation of these seven judicial officers as judges of the court in consultation with his two senior-most colleagues.

The Chief Minister and the Governor of Madhya Pradesh have endorsed the recommendations and the file was received in the Supreme Court from the Department of Justice on April 7, the resolution said.

It added, “In terms of the Memorandum of Procedure, in order to ascertain the fitness and suitability of the candidates for elevation to the high court, the judge of the Supreme Court conversant with the affairs of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh has been consulted.”

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The main purpose for appointments

According to the SC collegium, in order to fulfil the purpose of assessing the merit and suitability of the candidates for elevation to the HC, it has scrutinised the material placed on record, including the observations made by the Department of Justice in the file as well as the complaints received against the candidates.

“We have also taken note of the fact that the above proposal involves the non-recommendation of two senior judicial officers. In this regard, the High Court Collegium has duly recorded reasons for not recommending the names of these judicial officers,” the SC Collegium said.

“We are in agreement with the justification given by the High Court collegium in its minutes for not recommending these senior judicial officers,” it said.