New Delhi: Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad may meet Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra later this month amid growing differences between the government and the judiciary over a host of issues.
According to the sources in the government, the Department of Justice in the law ministry has prepared a note for the minister on pending issues to be raised at the proposed meeting.
Sources in the law ministry said that the two may meet to discuss many issues and that the meeting should not be hyped. “There are various channels for them to communicate. If there is a meeting, there is nothing unusual about it, ” said the official.
Some issues, for example, that may be discussed are, the elevation of justice K M Joseph and senior Supreme Court lawyer Indu Malhotra to the top court bench, the controversy surrounding alleged sexual harassment charge against a Karnataka district judge recommended for elevation to high.
There is no clue available about the date of the proposed meeting.
Among other topics, the delay in finalizing the Memorandum of Procedure, which guides transfer and elevation of High Court and Supreme Court judges, may also come up for discussion.
The meeting to be held is a very significant one, as two senior judges of the apex court, justices J Chelameswar and Kurian Joseph, have flagged issues to suggest that the executive was constantly overruling the recommendations of the judiciary.
They had raised various issues in their respective letters to the Chief Justice and other judges of the top court.
The government got irritated by the delay in clearing the Collegium’s recommendation to elevate a judge and a senior woman advocate to the apex court, Justice Kurian Joseph wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India contending the “very life and existence” of the institution was “under threat” and a “surgical intervention” was required.
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