Senior advocates U U Lalit, Arvind Datar under lens for Supreme Court judges’ job

NEW DELHI: After a controversial end to its recommendation to appoint senior advocate Gopal Subramanium as a judge of the Supreme Court, the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India R M Lodha is likely to meet this week to consider names of two more senior advocates for appointment as SC judges.

The SC, which has a sanctioned strength of 31 judges including the CJI, is functioning with 25 judges. Two more judges will retire soon — Justice B S Chauhan on Tuesday while Justice C K Prasad on July 14 — taking the number of vacancies to eight.

Three of these will be filled up when the CJI administers oath to senior advocate R F Nariman and chief justices Adarsh Goel and Arun Misra, who have been appointed by the President. The collegium had recommended four names, but the government had reservations on former solicitor general Gopal Subramanium.

When the news first broke out, some judges were of the view that the collegium should reiterate its recommendation to bind the government on his appointment. But, withdrawal of consent by him tied the hands of the collegium, sources in the SC told TOI.

Moreover, the former SG also declared that he would not practice in the SC till Justice Lodha demitted office. Justice Lodha retires as the CJI on September 27. Given the large number of vacancies, the collegium is considering senior advocates U U Lalit and Arvind Datar for appointment as judges. Lalit told TOI the court had wanted to know in April-May whether he was willing to become an SC judge.

He had said that he had no reservations. "But, no written consent had been sought as yet," he said, admitting that he did not know of the process the collegium adopts.