The clash between the government and the apex court seems unending. The latest in the conflict is Uttarakhand Chief Justice M Joseph whose name was sent back by the PM for reconsideration on his elevation as a Supreme Court judge. It was reasoned that the government is not bound to accept the name suggested by Collegium and that superiority is not the only bases of consideration. In fact, the government had subsided the superiority of justice Chelameswar to elevate justice Dipak Misra as the CJI.
In the midst of this, a question that arises to the point is whether justice Ranjan Gogoi will be throned in place of CJI Misra or the latter’s office will get a two years’ extension? If sources are to be believed, Central government is pondering over raising the threshold of CJI Office from 65 years to 67 years of age.
Manmohan also wanted to bring the 114th Constitutional Amendment Bill in 2010 so that the age of retirement of the Chief Justice of the country could be raised to 67 years, but for some reasons, this agenda remained unattended. The BJP government has the full authority to bring in such amendment, but the only flaw in the plan is that this will be a constitutional amendment, for which the saffron party has to be prepared to pass through the heat.