Petitioner in 'First Judges Case' Senior Advocate SP Gupta passes away

Senior Advocate and former Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh (UP) SP Gupta passed away on January 16. He was 92.

Gupta had not been keeping well and had been admitted to a hospital in Prayagraj before he breathed his last.

Gupta who served as Advocate General of UP twice, is famously know for being the lead petitioner in the historical ‘First Judges Case’ of 1981 (SP Gupta v. President of India) in which the Supreme Court held that the opinion of Chief Justice of India (CJI) does not have primacy over that of the executive when it comes to appointment of judges.

A seven-judge Bench of Justices PN Bhagawati, AC Gupta, Syed Murtaza Fazal Ali, VD Tulzapurkar, DA Desai, RS Pathak, and ES Venkataramiah had held that the CJI's recommendation on judicial appointments and transfers can be refused by the government for “cogent reasons.

“The fourth writ petition is that filed by S.P. Gupta in the High Court of Allahabad. The petitioner in that writ petition is an advocate practising in the Allahabad High Court and he has filed this writ petition for substantially the same reliefs as the writ petitions of Iqbal Chagla and V.M. Tarkunde, with only this difference that the reliefs claimed by him relate to the appointments of Additional Judges in the High Court of Allahabad. The petitioner has inter alia prayed for a declaration that the three Additional Judges of the Allahabad High Court, namely, Mr Justice Murlidhar, Mr Justice A.N. Verma and Mr Justice N.N. Mittal must be deemed to have been appointed permanent Judges under the warrants already issued to them and that the circular letter of the Law Minister must be held to be void. This writ petition was also heard along with the other writ petitions by this Bench of seven Judges” the top court had noted with reference to Gupta's petition in that judgment.

This judgment was subsequently overturned by the 1993 judgment in 'Second Judges case' leading to the birth of the Collegium system.