Justice Akil Abdulhamid Kureshi, who is one of the senior-most High Court chief justices of India has been left out from the list for elevation to the Supreme Court by the collegium. The SC collegiums led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana cleared nine justices and judges for elevation, after the retirement of Justice R.F. Nariman.
While former Justice Nariman recommended Justice Kureshi for elevation when he was part of the collegium, after his retirement on August 12, nine other names were cleared.
Justice Abdulhamid Kureshi is well known for having remanded union home minister Amit Shah in CBI custody over a decade ago (when Shah was the then home minister of Gujarat) in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.
Justice Akil Abdulhamid Kureshi was then senior judge in Bombay High Court became the Tripura High Court chief justice in 2019 after a stalemate between the then collegium and the BJP government.
The people cleared by collegium for elevation to the Supreme Court are Chief Justice A.S. Oka of Karnataka High Court, Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Bela M. Trivedi (Gujarat HC) ; Chief Justice J.K. Maheshwari (Sikkim HC); Justice Hima Kohli (Telangana HC); Justice C.T. Ravi Kumar (Kerala HC); Justice M.M. Sundreshof (Madras HC) and senior advocate P.S. Narasimha.
However, most of these chief justices and judges lack Justice Kureshi’s experience and seniority. While there is no clear conditions that only a senior judge or chief justice of a high court should be elevated to the Supreme Court, the convention has always prioritized senior-most judges.
The present collegium consists of Justices Ramana, U.U. Lalit, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and L. Nageswara Rao. Meanwhile, the CJI has not provided any information as to what factors caused the removal of Justice Kureshi from the list.
