Journalism of Courage
It’s 10.15 am and Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, Justice K M Joseph, has taken his seat to hear matters mostly pertaining to income tax and service-related cases. Both subjects are part of his forte, according to lawyers in the High Court.
While Delhi is abuzz over the central government’s reluctance to elevate the 59-year-old as a Supreme Court judge, it’s a regular day inside his courtroom in Nainital. Justice Joseph spent most of Thursday hearing a case of over 300 employees of the state forest department claiming pensionary benefits from the Uttarakhand government. Lawyers appearing before the Chief Justice said they did not observe any hint of tension or disappointment in Justice Joseph through the day.
Uttarakhand advocate-general S N Babulkar, officiating chairman of the Bar Council of Uttarakhand, says, “Justice Joseph deserves to be elevated as a Supreme Court judge. He lacks no credentials.”
Incidentally, Justice Joseph’s father, the late Justice K K Mathew, was sworn in as Supreme Court judge at the age of 60 in October 1971. Considered to be close to former prime minister Indira Gandhi, he was “sounded” about accepting the post of Chief Justice of India if it was offered to him, even though it meant others would be superceded. However, Mathew felt it would not be proper to accept the post, according to “Judges of the Supreme Court of India: 1950-1989”, a book authored by George H Gadbois Jr. He was appointed as chairman of the Tenth Law Commission.
In Nainital, employees and lawyers of the High Court point to Justice Joseph’s judgment of April 21, 2016, when he was part of a Division Bench that quashed the order to place the state under President’s Rule amid a political tussle in the assembly between the then ruling Congress and the BJP.
Read | Who is Justice Kuttiyil Mathew Joseph?
Employees and lawyers say Justice Joseph is “objective”, and “strictly follows the law”. They say the order quashing President’s Rule was “the only major judgment” that Justice Joseph was involved in during his nearly four years as Chief Justice of the High Court.
While hearing the petition challenging President’s Rule, the Division Bench had remarked that the Centre was “introducing chaos”. The Bench had remarked that by taking back the power of an elected government, the Centre had “cut into the root of democracy”.
“If a jurist of his calibre is not being elevated to the Supreme Court, then I don’t know who should be. I am yet to see a jurist as learned and as humble as Justice Joseph,” says Senior Advocate at the High Court Avtar Singh Rawat, who was the Additional Advocate General for Uttarakhand in the Supreme Court from 2002 to 2007.
“It is wrong to link politics to the quashing of President’s Rule… He (Justice Joseph) has remained fairly apolitical in his years as the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court,” says Rawat.
Read | SC rejects plea to stall Indu Malhotra’s appointment, on KM Joseph says wait
However, in another ruling last June, Justice Joseph’s court turned down a plea from Magsaysay award-winning Indian Forest Service officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi who challenged Union Health Minister J P Nadda’s decision to give him a “zero” rating in the Performance Appraisal Report for 2015-16. This was after Chaturvedi had raised several allegations of corruption in AIIMS, Delhi.
In May 2016, the then Supreme Court Collegium had recommended that Justice Joseph be transferred to the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The move was sought on health grounds, as the cold weather in Nainital has been adding to Joseph’s health woes, especially after a heart surgery a few years ago. The recommendation, however, was stalled.
In Delhi, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court says, “Justice Joseph knew that his name was considered for the Supreme Court when the Uttarakhand case came before him. He could have said the judiciary did not want to interfere. But he found there was naked abuse of executive power and he set aside the Presidential order to bring back a government that was dismissed by the President. Not many can do that, this showed his impeccable integrity.”
Read | Indu Malhotra in as Supreme Court judge, Government is still silent on Justice KM Joseph
Lawyers recall that Justice Joseph’s father, Justice Mathew, was one of the judges who originally dissented in the Kesavananda Bharati case related to the Basic Structure of the Constitution. His move to distribute a questionnaire asking whether the Supreme Court should deal exclusively with Constitutional matters, and a separate court of appeals be set up to hear other matters had triggered controversy at the time.
Hailing from Kottayam district, Justice Joseph completed his studies in Ernakulam. He enrolled as an advocate in January 1982 in the Delhi High Court, but shifted to the Kerala High Court a year later.
Read | Collegium decision final, anything else malafide, says Fali Nariman
A permanent member of Kerala High Court Advocates Association, Justice Joseph was appointed permanent judge of the Kerala High Court on October 14, 2004. He assumed charge as Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court on July 31, 2014. Justice Joseph is due to retire on June 16, 2020.
