Justice Irshad Ali: Has the Centre flouted the Collegium’s recommendation to make him a permanent judge?

By way of a notification issued yesterday, the Central government extended the tenure of Justice Irshad Ali as additional judge of Allahabad High Court. The tenure of Justice Ali has been extended by six months.

This decision, however, seems to be in contravention of the Collegium resolution of September 5 that recommended Justice Ali to be made a permanent judge of Allahabad High Court.

In the September 5 resolution, the Collegium had recommended that Justice Neeraj Tiwari and Justice Irshad Ali, who are additional judges at Allahabad High Court, be made permanent judges.

Further, it was also recommended that the tenure of additional judge, Justice Rahul Chaturvedi, be extended by six months.

However, the Centre now seems to have clubbed Justice Irshad Ali’s name with Justice Rahul Chaturvedi’s. Hence, the tenures of Justices Ali and Chaturvedi as additional judges have been extended by 6 months,  while Justice Neeraj Tiwari has been made permanent.

When the Centre has a disagreement with a recommendation made by the Collegium, the usual process to be followed under Memorandum of Procedure is to refer the same back to the Collegium for reconsideration.

The Collegium then takes a final call on the proposal. The Collegium also publishes its final decision on the Supreme Court website disclosing the fact that the Central government had returned the concerned file. The second decision taken by the Collegium is final and the Central government is bound to clear the same.

In the instant case, however, there is nothing on the Supreme Court website to suggest that the Central government had returned the file of Justice Irshad Ali. This would mean that the Central government has chosen to override the Collegium recommendation regarding Justice Irshad Ali at the first instance and proceeded to issue a notification without following the established procedure.

[Read Collegium Recommendation and Central Government Notification]