The Centre will take a decision within a week on the Supreme Court collegium’s recommendation to elevate Justice Akil Kureshi as Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, the top court was informed on Friday. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer that he had an “instruction that within a week some decisions will be taken in this regard”. Taking note of the submission, the court adjourned the hearing and said it will fix the next date of hearing on the administrative side. The bench was hearing a petition by the Gujarat High Court Advocates’ Association, challenging what the association claimed was “arbitrary inaction” of the Central government in “withholding the appointment” of Justice Kureshi as Chief Justice of MP High Court despite the recommendation of the SC collegium. The court had earlier asked Mehta to assist it. The petition contended that “deliberate inaction of the Respondent in not appointing Mr Justice Akil Kureshi as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court impinges and diminishes the primacy of the judiciary in the matters of appointment and transfer of judges to High Court and Supreme Court”.
