Collegium system of appointing judges set to go !! NEW DELHI: The collegium system of appointing judges to the Supreme Court and high courts is set to become history with Congress deciding to support the NDAs Constitution amendment bill to create the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). The legislation, which seeks to replace the present judges-appointing-judges system with a six-member commission, found vocal backing from regional parties as well as the Left. A vacillating Congress realized it did not have the numbers to stall passage of the bill and thereby decided to record its concerns while voting in its favour. Congress is opposed to two provisions — giving veto to members of the commission to nix names proposed for judgeship and requiring unanimity in case a name returned by the President is reiterated. The party said these provisions would compromise the judiciarys independence. The first day of the debate in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, after law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad sought support for the bill, removed any doubt on the outcome, with members across political parties taking potshots at the judiciary and complimenting the minister for putting in place a commission to appoint judges. The government has got no intentions whatsoever to intervene in the rights, jurisdiction, authority, constitutional powers of the Supreme Court and high courts of India, Prasad said to reassure the judiciary. The legislation is set to pass in Lok Sabha on Wednesday and the government will look to bring it to the upper house either before the end of the budget session on August 14 or by extending the session, as suggested by the treasury benches. Backing the bill, regional parties went a step further by seeking separate state-level commissions to appoint judges to high courts, as proposed by AIADMK leader M Thambidurai. It found support from Samajwadi Party with Dharmendra Yadav making the same demand as also Shiv Sena. Thambidurai said his party would support the bill only if his amendment for state-level commissions was accepted. Congresss opening speaker Veerappa Moily pointed to the veto powers to argue, The judiciary may be worried about it. This may give rise to conflict between the executive and the judiciary. Moily added that the Chief Justice of India could have been given extra influence to assure the judiciary. But this was the only concern in the course of the debate and regional parties, led by Trinamool Congress, slammed the post-1993 system whereby the CJI-headed collegium appointed judges. Pointing to corruption, lack of transparency and meritorious judges not making it to Supreme Court, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee slammed the judiciary for repeatedly targeting the political class. Debutant Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal slammed the CJIs comment in defence of the collegium system. It appears to me that the CJI has been making a deliberate and conscious effort to undermine and demoralize the highest law-making institution of the country which is Parliament. It is expected of the CJI to understand and realize that the role of the court is only to interpret the law and not to create and make laws. That is the responsibility of Parliament, she said. Members did raise the issue of how the proposed commission lacks provisions to make the judiciary more diverse by including SCs, STs, OBCs and women as members.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 05:06:05 +0000
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