The Supreme Court Collegium may have arrived at a consensus with the government’s proposal to include the contentious ‘national security’ clause in the draft Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for appointment of judges.
The clause, which gave veto power to the government to reject a name recommended by the Collegium for appointment as judge, has been the bone of contention between the government and the Collegium, delaying the finalisation of the MoP for over a year.
The clause may find a place in the new memorandum, provided the government revert to the Collegium with specific and detailed objections against a name under the national security clause.
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The MoP draft was handed over to the Supreme Court Collegium by the government way back in August 2016. But no progress was made in resolving the differences till Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar took over as top judge.
Chief Justice Khehar has repeatedly given positive signals — once in open court and the other at a function last week — that he would have the MoP finalised soon, possibly by the end of February.
Sources had recently indicated that the national security clause was no longer a roadblock. Under Chief Justice Khehar’s immediate predecessor, Justice T.S. Thakur had time and again made strong observations against perceived government inaction.
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However, in the past two months of Chief Justice Khehar’s taking over, there has been a perceptible thaw in the frost which has developed in the relations between the government and the highest judiciary since the Supreme Court Constitution Bench’s judgment scrapping the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) in October 2015.
Though both the judiciary and the government have maintained that the pendency of the MoP would not stand in the way of judicial appointments, an amicable resolution in that issue would clear the air on the procedure for appointments of judges to the higher judiciary.