CIC raps govt. on Himachal CJ posting ‘Why was he promoted despite then prez Kalam’s objection’

The order directing disclosure of documents related to
Justice Bhalla’s promotion came on an appeal filed by RTI activist Subhash
Chandra Agrawal, the very same activist at whose instance the CIC had already
told the SC to give out information related to declaration of assets by judges.

CIC member A. N. Tiwari asked the Justice Department to
disclose within four weeks ‘the file, records or documents germane’ to Bhalla’s
appointment as Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh HC in February 2008.

His promotion was unusual as just a year before, President
Kalam had returned the proposal to appoint Bhalla, as Chief Justice of the
Kerala HC. Justice Bhalla was then in the Allahabad HC and Kalam’s reservations
were on account of the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Department’s report that a land
mafia embroiled in litigation had sold the Judge’s wife a 7,200 sq.metre plot in
Noida for no more than Rs.5 lakh (as against the then prevailing market value of
Rs.7 crore.)

Justice Bhalla could still make it to the top judicial job in
Shimla because after Kalam’s retirement, the SC collegium (committee of senior
Judges) made a fresh recommendation for his promotion. At the time of his
promotion, Bhalla happened to be serving as Acting Chief Justice of the
Chattisgarh HC on account of a discretionary power exercised by Law Minister H.
R. Bhardwaj. The order of the CIC requires the Justice Department to disclose
the correspondence between the Law Minister and the CJI along with the file —
notings made by various authorities, including Kalam’s observations. If this
order is implemented, it could lay bare for the first time the manner in which
Judges appoint themselves under the existing system in which the judiciary
wrested primacy from the executive in the
name of protecting the independence of the judiciary.