The Law Minister’s letter escalates the back-and-forth between the government and judiciary.
New Delhi:
Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has written to the Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, suggesting that the Supreme Court collegium that decides on judges’ appointments should include representatives of the government, sources have said.
The panel of top Supreme Court judges should have government representatives to infuse transparency and public accountability, the Law Minister has written in the letter that escalates an ongoing back-and-forth between the government and judiciary.
Mr Rijiju has also said state representatives should be part of the High Court collegium.
In a war of words over judges’ appointments, several ministers and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar have criticised what they call “opaqueness” of the judiciary.
They have argued that the government should have a role in selection of judges, which has been the domain of the Supreme Court Collegium since 1993.
The Supreme Court has firmly defended the collegium system.
Mr Rijiju has called the collegium system “alien” to the Constitution and has strongly objected to a system in which the government has no right to appoint judges.
He also criticised the Supreme Court for scrapping the National Judicial Appointments Commission set up by the BJP-led government through a law enacted in 2014. The commission would have included representatives of both the government and judiciary.
Vice President Dhankhar has echoed these views on various platforms. Last week, he said “one-upmanship and public posturing” from judicial platforms is not good. The scrapping of the judicial commission, he said, was “a scenario perhaps unparalleled in the democratic history of the world.”
He also questioned a landmark 1973 case verdict that said parliament can amend the Constitution but not its basic structure.
The Supreme Court said the collegium system is the “law of the land” which should be “followed to the teeth”. It would not cease to be the law “just because some sections of society expressed a view against the collegium system”.
The Supreme Court Collegium currently comprises Chief Justice Chandrachud and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, KM Joseph, MR Shah, Ajay Rastogi and Sanjiv Khanna
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