Madras Bar Association asks SC collegium to recommend Vasanthakumar J for elevation

A week after the Supreme Court collegium reportedly recommended the elevation of five judges to the apex court, speculation has been rife as regards certain names that have not been considered..And now the Bar has weighed in with its suggestion as to who should make it to the country’s top court..As we reported earlier, the other names rumoured to be in the reckoning included those of Justice Manjula Chellur, Justice Paul Vasanthakumar, Justice G Rohini and Justice KM Joseph..Now, the Madras Bar Association has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India JS Khehar recommending that Justice Vasanthakumar be considered for elevation..The letter, signed off by Senior Advocate and President of the Association R Shunmugasundaram, claims that there is no adequate representation for the Madras High Court in the apex court at present..It goes on to say that Justice R Banumathi is the only judge from the High Court, which has always had “two or more judges” serving at the Supreme Court. The letter concludes by saying that Vasanthakumar J is the “senior most judge from the Madras High Court and is the fittest person to be a Supreme Court judge”..In fact, Justice Vasanthakumar, currently the Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, is the senior-most judge across all the twenty-four high courts; he retires on March 14 of this year. The recommended names, including present Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Sanjay Kishan Kaul, are far down the seniority list..However, as this article explains, the seniority rule is a mere guideline for the collegium, which may consider merit or other factors over seniority while recommending a judge for elevation..And the Madras Bar Association, one of the oldest in the country, might just get its wish. If the recent reports about an imminent re-shuffle of Chief Justices are to be believed, Vasanthakumar J just might be on his way to the apex court..The reports indicated that Justice Badar Durrez Ahmad of the Delhi High Court has been recommended as Chief of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, without making any mention of what Justice Vasanthakumar’s next assignment will be..Of late, there has been a call for more transparency in the workings of the collegium, even by a current member of the collegium, Justice J Chelameswar. Bar & Bench recently conducted a Twitter poll on this topic, and the results were overwhelmingly in favour of making things less opaque..Read the letter: