Supreme Court to take up plea on non-elevation of Justice Qureshi

NEW DELHI: SC will soon hear a petition which has challenged the non-elevation of Bombay. HC judge Akhil Qureshi as Madhya Pradesh high court chief justice. CJI Ranjan Gogoi on Monday directed that a copy of the petition, filed by the Gujarat HC Bar Association, be served on Solicitor General Tushar Mehta so that the matter can be heard at length on July 22. The Centre had cleared all other names recommended by the SC collegium on May 10 along with justice Qureshi’s. Justices RV Ramasubramanian, RS Chauhan and DN Patel were subsequently appointed as chief justices of the Himachal, Telangana and Delhi high courts, respectively.

Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, the senior-most judge is currently acting chief justice of the MP HC.

The Gujarat HC Bar Association had gone on strike over non-clearance of justice Qureshi’s name before moving the SC. Its case was argued by senior advocate Arvind P Datar on Monday. Datar contended that those junior to Justice Qureshi were cleared for elevation. The CJI said it was “factually incorrect” and there were other names pending.