In a setback to the Narendra Modi government, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a curative petition seeking a review of the judgment upholding the appointment of Justice R.A. Mehta as the Gujarat Lokayukta . A five-Judge Bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir (sitting on his last working day) and Justices P. Sathasivam, G.S. Singhvi, B.S. Chauhan and Ibrahim Kalifulla dismissed the petition as of no merits.
A curative petition is filed after the dismissal of a review petition and it is decided by a larger Bench in the chambers through circulation. In January, a Bench of Justices Chauhan and Kalifulla said: “The facts make it clear that the process of consultation by the Governor with the then Chief Justice of Gujarat stood complete and in such a situation the appointment of Justice Mehta cannot be held to be illegal.”
In this case, the Bench said: “The recommendation of the Chief Justice suggesting only one name, instead of a panel of names, is in consonance with the law laid down by this court, and we do not find any cogent reason to not give effect to the said recommendation. The objections raised by the Chief Minister have been duly considered by the Chief Justice, as well as by this court, and we are of the considered view that none of them are tenable, to the extent that any of them may be labelled as cogent reason(s), for the purpose of discarding the recommendation of the name of respondent no. 1, for appointment to the post of Lokayukta.”
