The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the provision of the Lokpal law giving no primacy to the Chief Justice of India's opinion on who should be appointed as Lokpal Chairperson and Members.
The Chief Justice of India's opinion need not always get primacy. It is the prerogative of the legislature to decide whether the opinion of the Chief Justice of India should get primacy.
It is not the mandate of the Constitution that in all matters concerning the appointment to various offices in different bodies, primacy must be accorded to the opinion of the Chief Justice or his nominee, the court held.
A Bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi made these conclusions in a separate judgment dealing with a petition filed by an NGO – Just Society – against the Lokpal Act of 2013 not giving any primacy to the opinion of the CJI or his nominee judge in the matter of selection of Chairperson and Members of the Lokpal.
“If the Legislature in its wisdom had thought it proper not to accord primacy to the opinion of the Chief Justice or his nominee and accord equal status to the opinion rendered by the Chief Justice or his nominee and treat such opinion at par with the opinion rendered by other members of the Selection Committee, we do not see how such legislative wisdom can be questioned on the ground of constitutional infirmity,” Justice Gogoi wrote in the judgment.
