NEW DELHI: Just a few hours before the Supreme Court collegium met on Wednesday to reconsider the elevation of Uttarakhand Chief Justice K M Joseph to the top court, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad stated that the government had the right to send back any proposal of the SC collegium for re-evaluation.

Prasad deprived of insinuations that the government was functioning under influence and reiterated that its decision to send back Justice Joseph’s proposal for elevation to SC had nothing to do with the latter’s judgment knocked over President’s rule in the state.

He stated that SC judgement of 1993, 1998 and 2015 relating to the collegium system to assert that these very top court orders have given the government the right to seek a reconsideration of the proposals made by the SC collegium.

Prasad stated that there are two obvious reasons to support his stand that the government was not acting under any influence in this case as a proper government with 3/4th majority has been elected in Uttarakhand.

Prasad said that Second reason, the order of Justice Joseph to overturn President’s rule was confirmed by Justice J S Khehar of the SC, who had also set aside the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, yet he elevated the CJI during the NDA government.

“ I deny these insinuations,” the Law minister said.