A meeting of Law Minister Kapil Sibal here on Saturday with representatives of the Bar on the proposed National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill ended in a stalemate, with lawyers strongly opposing any move to tinker with the collegium system of appointment of judges to the higher judiciary.
Following an agitation by lawyers on August 3, the minister invited their representatives for an interaction.
Bar Council of India chairman Manan Kumar Misra and member S. Prabhakaran said the lawyers told the Minister that they were not at all in favour of the Bill in its present form. “The State Bar Councils and High Court Bar Associations expressed the view that the chairman or representative of the BCI and the chairman or representative of the Bar Associations or State Bar Councils concerned should be part of the judicial commission. Without the involvement of the Bar Councils and the Bar associations, the legal fraternity cannot accept replacement of the collegium system,” Mr. Misra and Mr. Prabhakaran told The Hindu.
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“The meeting, in fact, could not resolve anything and proved a fruitless exercise.” When the participants demanded a Rs. 1,000-crore fund for the welfare of lawyers, Mr. Sibal expressed his inability and asked them to approach the Finance Minister, said Mr. Misra and Mr. Prabhakaran.