The Law ministry has disclosed information about Supreme Court judges who were superseded as chief justices of high courts at least once before being elevated to the apex court since 2005 following an order by the Central Information Commission.
The ministry had earlier refused to share the information in reply to an RTI application saying no such list of chief justices of high courts, who were superseded before their selection as apex court judges, was maintained by it.
The list provided by the law ministry to activist S.C. Agrawal after intervention of the CIC has revealed names of 20 chief justices of high courts who were superseded before being elevated to the Supreme Court since the year 2005.
According to the ministry's reply, Supreme Court judge justice H.L. Gokhale was superseded seven times in three years as chief justice of Allahabad high court and later transferred as chief justice of Madras high court before being elevated to the apex court on April 30, 2010.
Justice Gokhale was superseded between 2007 and 2010, the reply states.
The list also includes the names of Justices D.K. Jain, Markandeya Katju, V.S. Sripurkar, G.S. Singhvi, M.K. Sharma, A.K. Patnaik, Cyriac Joseph, J.M. Panchal, A.K. Ganguly, Swatanter Kumar, H.L. Dattu, R.M. Lodha, T.S. Thakur, B.S. Chauhan, K.P.S. Radhakrishnan, A.R. Dave and C.K. Prasad.
Generally, chief justices of high courts, based on their seniority, are selected for elevation to the apex court by the collegium but in some cases selection is not done as per the seniority list. The list provided by the law ministry contains names of only those Judges who were ultimately selected for the Supreme Court after being superseded at least once.
The reply shows that justice A.K. Patnaik was superseded five times during 2007-09 before being elevated to the Supreme Court on November 17, 2009. justice Patnaik was appointed as chief justice of Chattisgarh high court on March 14, 2005 and upon transfer on October 2, 2005 assumed charge as chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh high court.
Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra, who assumed charge of the Jharkhand high court on July 13, 2008, was superseded five times between 2008-10 before being appointed to the apex court April 30, 2010.
The law ministry, in the reply, has also disclosed thenames of four judges whose files for the appointment as high court judges were at least once returned by the president since the year 2005.
The ministry, in its disclosure has said, "In the case of justice Ajit Bharioke, Justice V.K. Jain, Indermeet K. Kochhar and A.K. Pathak, additional judges, Delhi high court, the file was returned."
It also said that in the case of justice V.K. Jain (Retd), the file relating to his appointment as the chief justice of Punjab and Haryana high court was returned.
The ministry, however, refused to give similar details about judges whose files for appointment as Supreme Court judges was returned by the President, saying, "No such information is maintained."