Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud has responded to former Supreme Court judge Sanjay Kishan Kaul’s account of their interactions over judicial appointments, saying collegium decisions were unanimous and Justice Kaul had endorsed every recommendation.
Justice Chandrachud, however, added that the collegium’s official records showed that its resolutions, along with the reasons for its recommendations, were made public on the Supreme Court’s website and that the decisions were unanimous, with Justice Kaul endorsing every recommendation.
One of his most revealing accounts concerns a candidate from a minority faith whose elevation was questioned by the government. A further query concerned the caste to which the candidate’s family had belonged before converting to the faith. The former top court judge found the question irrelevant and the reasoning troubling. He then shut the file and walked out of the collegium meeting. The meeting was adjourned, and the government eventually relented. Prior to this, he also served as chief justices of the high courts of Punjab & Haryana and Madras.
Justice Kaul retired as judge of the Supreme Court in December 2023. He was part of the collegium and authored several important judgments since his elevation to the top court on February 17, 2017.
The government first raised the question of whether the Supreme Court needed additional representation from that faith, despite the candidate being from a state under-represented on the court, according to Justice Kaul. He says he told Justice Chandrachud that if appointments were to be made on such considerations, the government might as well appoint judges itself.
