The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the names of six advocates — M.A. Abdul Hakhim, V.M. Syam Kumar, Harisankar V. Menon, S. Manu, S. Easwaran Subramani, and P.M. Manoj — to be appointed as the judges of the Kerala High Court.
The collegium picked up Mr. Manoj as judge after dismissing the file note of the Department of Justice that he was considered to be a CPI(M) sympathiser and was appointed as government pleader in 2010 and 2016 by the LDF government. Interestingly, the political leanings of no other advocate were found mentioned in the files.
The collegium observed that the “input that the candidate is considered to be a CPI(M) sympathiser is otherwise vague and bereft of cogent grounds. Even otherwise, the mere fact that the candidate has had a political background may not be a sufficient reason in all cases,” it noted.
