Centre should not sit on collegium recommendations: Justice Joseph

Former Supreme Court judge Justice K.M. Joseph has urged the Central Government not to sit on recommendations reiterated by the Supreme Court Collegium, saying such recommendations should be acted upon unless there is a really good and relevant reason against the appointment. Speaking at a lecture organised by the Kerala High Court Bar Association, he appealed for an end to the discord between the state and the judiciary over judicial appointments, emphasising that the objective of the Second and Third Judges Cases was to keep the judiciary free from governmental control and ensure the appointment of the finest judges.

Justice Joseph also flagged the long pendency of Constitution Bench matters and called for a permanent five-judge Constitution Bench in the Supreme Court. He noted that 28 main matters are pending, with an average pendency of 2,738 days, and urged that constitutional questions be decided within a year. He expressed concern that merely increasing the number of judges may not resolve the workload unless the inflow of cases is controlled, pointing to about 93,000 pending cases in the top court.

He referred to the pending reference in S.A. Sampath Kumar v. Kale Yadaiah on whether courts can prescribe a timeline for Speakers to decide anti-defection petitions, noting it has not been decided since 2016. Justice Joseph contrasted India's multiple benches with the US Supreme Court, where all nine judges sit together, and highlighted that 22 statutes have vested appellate or original jurisdiction in the Supreme Court, contributing to docket expansion.