Day 7 Arguments

September 16th 2019

On May 10th, the Supreme Court Collegium comprising the CJI and his four senior most colleagues recommended Justice Akil Kureshi as Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The Union Law Ministry chose not to respond and roughly a month later appointed Justice SK Jha as the ‘Acting Chief Justice’ of the Madhya Pradesh HC. In response, on July 3rd the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association (GHCAA) filed a PIL before the Supreme Court praying for Justice Kureshi’s immediate appointment, contending that the Union was deliberately withholding its response to the Collegium in order to indefinitely delay it.

Finally near the end of August, the Department of Justice (a department within the Ministry of Law and Justice) sent its response to the Collegium, requesting it to consider transferring Justice Kureshi to a different High Court. On September 5th, the Collegium met to discuss the Department of Justice’s request.

In today’s brief hearing, CJI Gogoi declared that the Collegium had reached a final decision and will be publishing it on the Supreme Court of India’s website shortly.