Tuesday, the Supreme Court Collegium suggested that Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Aravind Kumar become judges on the highest court.
All six members of the Collegium, which was led by Chief Justice of India D. Y. Chandrachud, agreed that the name of Justice Bindal should be chosen. The apex court’s website has a resolution that says Justice K.M. Joseph had doubts about recommending Justice Kumar’s name.
“The Collegium voted unanimously to appoint Mr. Justice Rajesh Bindal as Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature in Allahabad. “However, Justice K.M. Joseph has reservations about the appointment of Mr. Justice Aravind Kumar, Chief Justice of the High Court of Gujarat, because his name could be considered at a later time,” the resolution said.
Bindal was the acting head of the Calcutta High Court before he became the head of the Allahabad High Court. During his time as mayor of Kolkata, he was in the middle of a dispute between the Trinamool Congress and the Centre after West Bengal’s elections.
In the meantime, Kumar is on the division bench of the Gujarat High Court, which was very harsh on Morbi Municipality, asking why it didn’t take over when the Oreva Group said in a letter from December 2021 that the bridge was important while lobbying for higher ticket prices, and on the fact that the municipality’s general body had not formally agreed to the execution of the agreement for Oreva to maintain and run the bridge.
When the Jhulto Pul suspension bridge in Morbi broke in October of last year, 135 people died and 56 were hurt. The Gujarat High Court had asked the state government why it had not used Section 263 of the Municipalities Act, which says that a municipality can be dissolved if it is found to be ineffective.
