‘History will not pardon us for not upholding judicial independence’

New Delhi, April 12 (IANS): Justice Kurian Joseph -- the fifth senior most judge in the Supreme Court and a member of the collegium -- has told Chief Justice Dipak Misra that “history will not pardon us” for not upholding judicial independence in the face of government sitting on its recommendation for the appointment of top court’s judges. In an April 9 letter, Justice Joseph pointed out that over three months have passed since the Supreme Court collegium had recommended the elevation of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K.M. Joseph and appointment of senior lawyer Indu Malhotra to the top court. Pointing out that the “government owes a duty to take a call on the recommendation as soon as the same is sent by the collegium”, Justice Joseph said: “Failure to discharge their duty by sitting on the recommendations of the collegium doing nothing, in administrative law, is abuse of power. “The dignity, honour and respect of this institution is going down day by day since we are not able to take recommendations for appointment to this court to their logical conclusion within the normally accepted time,” he said. He asked Chief Justice Misra to deal with the issue on the judicial side by constituting a bench of seven or more senior most judges of the top court. The Supreme Court Judge said: “If there is no normal delivery on the completion of the gestation period, what is urgently done is caesarean section. Unless such a surgical intervention is made at the appropriate time, the child in the womb dies. Recalling the way the full court met when then Calcutta High Court Judge C.S. Karnan “challenged the dignity of the court”, Justice Kurian said: “Is not the present a more grievous situation?” He said the apex court was reeling under the work pressure by working with 24 judges as against a sanctioned strength of 31.