Chelameswar J may attend collegium meetings again in “public interest”

The Supreme Court’s Justice Jasti Chelameswar has expressed an inclination to participate in the deliberations of the collegium, reports ET..The report quotes an anonymous source as saying,.“There has been a rethink and for public good and in public interest, Justice Chelameswar may now participate in SC collegium meetings to appoint judges”..The same report also states that the judge has been attending meetings held in relation to the finalisation of the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for appointing judges to the higher judiciary. Quite recently, the Centre and the Supreme Court collegium reportedly arrived at a consensus as regards the MoP..Justice Chelameswar has stayed away from collegium meetings ever since making his displeasure public in September of last year. The third senior-most judge of the apex court, Chelameswar J had then reportedly written a letter highlighting his “unwillingness” to participate in the collegium process..He had also recently publicly criticised the non-elevation of Justices KM Joseph and Manjula Chellur – Chief Justices of the Uttarakhand High Court and the Bombay High Court respectively – to the Supreme Court..Chelameswar J was the sole dissenting judge in the NJAC judgment, by which the collegium system of appointments was upheld..Image taken from here..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.