The central government, acting in surprising speed, has reportedly cleared the names of 4 judges recommended by the collegium headed by CJI Gogoi for elevation to the Supreme Court within 48 hours.
The Supreme Court had reportedly recommended the names of the four judges to the Centre on Oct 30 and the judges took the oath on Friday morning. The Law Ministry notified their appointments on Thursday night and the four took oath as Supreme Court judges on Friday morning.”We sent the recommendations at about 11 o’clock on Wednesday and on Wednesday evening, when I was informed that the medical (test of the judges to be elevated) has been done, I myself was very shocked. I couldn’t believe it. I said what you are saying. I am as much in awe as you are,” the CJI told the journalists covering the apex court in an informal chat.
The names of the four judges are justices Hemant Gupta, Ajay Rastogi, M R Shah and R Subhash Reddy.
Justice Hemant Gupta and justice Rastogi are the present chief justices of the Madhya Pradesh and Tripura HCs respectively. Justice Shah was the chief justice of Patna HC while Justice Reddy was the chief justice in Gujarat HC.
The CJI also made an important announcement that the apex court would provide translated copies of its judgments to litigants in their mother tongue if they are unable to understand English. “To start with, we may do it in Hindi,” the CJI said on Thursday while inaugurating the Centre for Research and Planning, an “in-house think tank”. He stressed on the need for providing judgments in vernacular languages but rued manpower crunch and other resources in implementing the idea.”At this moment it is very difficult to say whether it will be translated into other languages as well. We have a gross deficiency of resources,” he said.
The centres’ nod to the elevation of four judges within 48 hours is in contrast to an earlier tussle between the collegium and centre for the elevation of Justice KM Joseph to the apex court.
