Plea against HC collegium quashed

The Delhi high court on Friday dismissed a plea, challenging its collegium’s recommendation to the Centre to appoint Mumbai’s Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) president RV Easwar as an additional judge. HT reports.

The Delhi high court on Friday dismissed a plea, challenging its collegium’s recommendation to the Centre to appoint Mumbai’s Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) president RV Easwar as an additional judge.

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Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Manmohan dismissed the plea by Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) secretary DK Sharma against the high court’s recommendation to appoint Easwar as its additional judge. “We have considered the experience of more than 10 years of the respondent (Easwar) as a lawyer at the Bar before joining the Tribunal,” the bench said.

“So far as suitability of a candidate for elevation as high court judge is concerned, we have left it to the collegium,” the bench said. It also referred to the constitutional provision regarding the appointment of the judges in the high court and said: “We have left them open.”

The Delhi high court collegium, comprising its three senior-most judges, including Chief Justice Dipak Misra, had recently recommended to the Centre that Easwar be appointed as an additional judge of the court.