CJI Retires -Eligible for NHRC - Leaves it to God.
CHIEF Justice of India HL Dattu retires today. It is fine with him whether he gets appointed as Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission(NHRC) or not. This is a post reserved for former Chief Justices of the Supreme Court. Former? Can't the present CJI be appointed or can he be appointed a day after his retirement.
As per the Act, the Commission shall consist of:
a) a Chairperson who has been a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court;
(b) one Member who is or has been, a Judge of the Supreme Court;
(c) one Member who is, or has been, the Chief Justice of a High Court;
Please observe the highlighted words. It can be inferred that:
1. The Chairperson has to be a person who has been a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; that is the present Chief Justice is not eligible. That means only former Chief Justices are eligible. Does this mean that a Chief Justice who retired yesterday can be appointed as Chairperson today, but not yesterday, for yesterday he was the CJI and not has been the CJI.
2. However, this restriction is not applicable to Members. A Member can be a person who is, or has been the Judge of the Supreme Court or the Chief Justice of a High Court. So, both serving and retired judges are eligible.
So, Justice Dattu will become eligible only tomorrow.
Justice TS Thakur takes over as CJI today. Justice Thakur was appointed a Judge of the Karnataka High Court in 1994, when Justice Dattu practiced in the same High Court and appeared before Justice Thakur. Justice Dattu joined as a judge junior to Justice Thakur in the Karnataka High Court in 1995.
Justice Dattu became the Chief Justice of a High Court in 2007, while Justice Thakur became the Chief Justice of a High Court in 2008.
Justice Dattu was elevated to the Supreme Court on 17.12.2008 and Justice Thakur on 17.11.2009. Thus Justice Dattu who had appeared before Justice Thakur became his senior in the Supreme Court and went on to become the Chief Justice of India.
Complexities of appointing judges!
Age was on the side of Justice Thakur and he also has now become the Chief Justice of India.
Judges need to go on holidays: The outgoing CJI said, "There is pressure on my judges so they need to go on holidays... they do a lot of work during holidays. I have never been to places like CP and Khan market during my tenure in SC but, of course, I have taken my wife to Medanta and Apollo. Judges have to sacrifice and I too have sacrificed a lot."