The Hindu : National : No move to change judges’ appointment procedure: Bhardwaj

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No move to change judges’ appointment procedure: Bhardwaj

J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI: Union Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj on Wednesday made it clear there was no proposal to change the procedure of appointment of judges to the High Courts and the Supreme Court on the basis of the recommendations made by a collegium of judges headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI).

Speaking at the ‘Law Day’ celebrations (India adopted the Constitution on November 26, 1949) at the Supreme Court, Mr. Bhardwaj referred to the recent controversy over the recommendations made by the collegium to elevate the Chief Justices of three High Courts and said, “I [the government] will not deviate from the mandate of the Supreme Court judgements which laid down the procedure of judges’ appointment.”

He said the Law Commission headed by Justice A.R. Lakshmanan had submitted a report on changing the collegium system of appointments.

He said: “I have reservations on the setting up of National Judicial Commission [to deal with appointments and errant judges]. If you want to revert to any other system, it is for the judiciary to decide. The independence of the institution of judiciary should be protected.”

He said the present system had worked considerably well and there was no complaint. “If appointments are to be done by the NJC with outsiders as members, there is bound to be delay and deadlock.” On the need for more transparency, Bhardwaj said, “The recommendations for appointments are made by competent persons in the collegium and there is transparency in the procedure.”

On corruption in judiciary and entrusting cases to the police, he differed with the CJI, who recently permitted the CBI to interrogate judges involved in corruption and said, “I am against the CBI or the police entering the house of a judge for investigation. Sanction for prosecution of a judge should not be given as this will not be good for the judiciary. We must have a mechanism to deal with the issue by peers in the judiciary. We must insulate the judiciary from all sorts of attacks so that the prestige of the institution is kept at a high level.”

Impeachment issue

Earlier, talking to reporters, he denied reports that the government was not proceeding further in the impeachment of Justice Soumitra Sen of Calcutta High Court. He said, “I am taking it forward. These things can’t be decided overnight.”

Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan, who inaugurated the celebrations, defended the collegium system of appointments and said, “We strictly follow the norms and the procedure laid down in the three Supreme Court judgments. We are bound to follow them and we have not deviated from the procedure.”

On the question of transparency in the appointments by giving details of the persons and their antecedents as was being done in the United States, he said, “In the U.S., it is a political appointment. Here, it is not so.”

He explained the various steps taken to tackle corruption in judiciary. Reeling out statistics, the Chief Justice said the rate of disposal of cases had been very high whether it was in the subordinate judiciary, High Court or the Supreme Court but correspondingly the institution of cases was also very high, resulting in arrears

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