PM urged to ensure clean chief justice for Kerala
By IANSTuesday, January 19, 2010
KOCHI - A retired Supreme Court judge and former Kerala minister Tuesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure that no tainted person becomes the next chief justice of the state high court.
“I plead with you as a statesman to see that the Kerala vacancy is filled by a fine robed brother after due care and invigilation,” reads the letter from 94-year-old retired justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, which was faxed to Manmohan Singh.
“Please understand me, I make no insinuation against anyone. The high office of chief justice should be occupied by a sublime soul and never by one who is under a shadow,” Iyer added.
Iyer was law and irrigation minister in the world’s first elected communist government in 1957 led by E.M.S. Namboodiripad in Kerala.
He became a judge of the high court of Kerala in 1968 and a judge of the Supreme Court of India in 1973. He retired from the apex court in November 1980.
The present Kerala High Court chief justice, S.R. Bannurmath, retires Jan 23.
-Indo Asian News Service
