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Panel: why shroud judges’ appointment in secrecy?

Legal Correspondent

“This is not good for democracy; entire process should be transparent”

Empowered panel, instead of collegium, should make appointments
Corporates should pay higher court fee than common man

NEW DELHI: The parliamentary committee on the Law and Justice Ministry has called for transparency in the appointment of judges of High Courts and the Supreme Court.

It wanted the pre-1993 position of giving primacy to the executive in the appointments restored.

Appointees in the dark

In its 28th report placed in Parliament last week, the committee headed by E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan of the Congress said: “What is happening presently is that from the day of identifying the persons till the issuance of warrant, nothing is known to anybody except to the persons who are involved in it. Even the persons, who are identified and who are going to be made judges may not know about it. This type of secrecy is not good for democracy.”

The system of recommendations being made by a collegium of judges in the High Court and the Supreme Court should be done away with. Instead, an empowered committee comprising a representative each of the judiciary, the executive and Parliament should be set up for appointment and transfer of judges.

“From the very beginning of identifying the eligible persons, the various places of recommendations, be it at the level of the High Courts, or at the Governor’s level or at the level of the Departments and finally the Supreme Court, should be transparent.”

The names recommended should be put up on the website then and there so that “the person who is going to occupy the constitutional post is known to the public and his background should be allowed to be discussed by the public and finally it has to go through the process of issuing warrant by the President.”

The committee called for a differential system of court fees for the corporate sector and the common man. “Corporate commercial bodies have huge financial resources at their disposal and invariably their disputes are worth crores. Accordingly, it would be reasonable if they are required to pay the court fees as per the value of the dispute on ad valorem basis which should extend from one to five per cent of the total value of the dispute.”

“It is the common man, who waits for justice for years.” Early hearing and disposal of corporate matter delayed the cases of ordinary citizen as it took valuable court time with minimum court fees. “Therefore, there is a strong case for a differential court fee for the corporate sector.”

The total stamp/court fee collected by the Supreme Court in 2006 and 2007 was Rs. 1,20,40,382 and Rs. 1,17,15,951. “If differential court fees are applied for the corporate cases that will add to the Supreme Court revenue.”

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