At a high-level meeting between the Law Ministry and eminent jurists on Monday, absolute consensus was reached that the collegium system should go. The BJP-led NDA government assured that it would not pave the way for an Executive takeover of judicial appointments.
“There was a very frank exchange of ideas. Everybody in there was of the opinion that the system has to change,” Mukul Rohatgi, Attorney-General of India, told The Hindu on Monday.
The meeting, which went on for over three hours, saw parliamentarians and retired Chief Justices of India participating along with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Law Commission Chairperson Justice A.P. Shah, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi and Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar attended. Some of the eminent jurists who participated include former Chief Justices of India V.N. Khare and A.M. Ahmadi, and K. Parasaran and Fali Nariman, among others.
High-level sources said that the government was very clear in its assurance that it did not want to go back to the pre-collegium system days when the Executive had veto power over judges’ appointments.
Sources said a new law would be prepared in place of the UPA government’s version of the Judicial Accountability Bill, with care given to highlight transparency in judicial appointments.
The composition of a possible Judicial Appointments Commission was also discussed.
