Gujarat CJ Bhattacharya writes to CJI Kabir; Claims real reason for being denied place in Supreme Court was opposition to elevation of Kabir’s sister

Exactly one week before the tenure of the current Chief Justice of India, Altamas Kabir, is to end, a letter written by the current Chief Justice of Gujarat, Justice Bhattacharya, has raised serious questions about how judges are appointed to the higher judiciary. The letter, excerpts of which were published by The Indian Express, was presumably written after the Supreme Court collegium rejected the elevation of Justice Bhattacharya stating that such an elevation would be, “counter-productive and not conducive to administration of justice.”.A week after the collegium’s views were made public, on March 19, 2013 Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya wrote a 10-page letter to the CJI, the President of India and the country’s Prime Minister..In his letter, Justice Bhattacharya has demanded to be shown “the material” which led the collegium to take a decision on his, “competence and character”. He also claims that the “real” reason for the collegium’s comments was the fact that he had opposed the elevation of CJI Kabir’s sister, Shukla Kabir Sinha, to the Calcutta High Court..Apart from the veiled claim that it was this opposition which prevented Justice Bhattacharya from reaching the Supreme Court, what also deserves attention are the objections raised by Justice Bhattacharya to the elevation of the CJI’s sister. These objections provide some idea as to what factors are considered while appointing members of the Bar to the higher judiciary..For instance, one of the points raised by Justice Bhattacharya relate to the annual salary drawn by Justice Sinha, who was 58 years old when applying for the post of judge. He writes,.In my view as an advocate who at the age of 58 years is just capable of earning a net amount of Rs. 88,000 from practice should in no case be recommended for judgeship. We cannot lose sight of the fact that a High Court chaprasi gets more than Rs. 13,000 per month as salary, which is equivalent to Rs. 1,56,000 per annum which is almost double the income of Mrs Shukla Kabir Sinha..Justice Bhattacharya also questions the time taken by Justice Sinha to complete her education, noting that Sinha took,.“[F]our years for passing BA examination …. and five years for getting MA degree after graduation, although the usual time taken for clearing these examinations is three years and two years respectively”.Another point raised by Justice Bhattacharya was the age of CJI Kabir’s sister; at the age of 59, Sinha would have a tenure of barely three years in the High Court (in fact, she retired earlier this year). Such an elevation, according to Justice Bhattacharya, would “..give a wrong signal and people would lose faith in the judiciary and the collegium system.”.He also went on to write that failure to raise any objections against Sinha’s elevation would amount to, “closing my eyes while my mother was being raped.”