Thread by @nitinmeshram_

Judge #Pardiwala who was at 47th seniority of all India Judges, trumped Chief Justices of all 25 High Courts.

But, his comparison with Bombay CJ, Dipankar Datta is most curious.

Datta & Pardiwala are born in same year, 1965. Datta in Feb & Pardiwala in Aug.

Datta was elevated

as a Judge of Calcutta High Court at his 41 years in 2006 & Pardiwala at 46 in 2011.

Datta is a serving Chief Justice since last 2 years & few days in Bombay. In addition to being a Chief Justice, he is Senior by 5 years to Pardiwala with a good record & without controversy

If Datta was elevated to Supreme Court before Pardiwala, he could have become the Chief Justice of India & served for 1 y and 9 mo. If Pardiwala was elevated immediately after Datta, he would have got 6 months tenure as the CJI.

Since, Pardiwala is elevated and Datta is not

elevated to Supreme Court, Pardiwala will be the CJI for 2 y & 3 mo. Even if Datt is elevated in future to fill up subsequent vacancies (there will be 7 vacancies till November) in Supreme Court, he will not become Chief Justice and therefore, the myth that early elevation can

possibly lead to becoming the Chief Justice of India is fully broken. What we see today is a grave of that myth. Also a myth that seniority plays a role in appointment of Judges is no longer valid. It has become old fashion under current regime of Modi & Supreme Court Collegium.

You may know that Judge Bela Trivedi was at 70th Seniority when she was elevated to Supreme Court, last year.

Why seniority then be observed in appointment of Chief Justice?

A myth of geographical representation on the Supreme Court is no longer being observed since many years.

There are several Judges from Maharashtra in Supreme Court but very few from Madras & Calcutta. After Judge Banerjee’s retirement in September, there will remain only one Judge from Calcutta in Supreme Court.

We have made several constitutional conventions in the past for

appointment of Judges in High Court & Supreme Court, all of them are (rightly or wrongly) being unmade in these days.