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Change collegium system: Jurists

Last Updated 28 July 2014, 20:30 IST

The government on Monday is learnt to have arrived at a “broad consensus” that the existing collegium system of appointment of judges in high courts and the Supreme Court needs to be amended.

The four-hour deliberation, attended by eminent jurists and former Chief Justices of India, was organised by the Law Ministry. 

The government was represented by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

After the meeting, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said, “It was an exchange of ideas. We have reached a broad consensus. Everybody is of the opinion that the (collegium) system (of appointment of judges) should change.” 

It is for the government to do the necessary things, he said, adding that the debate, however, has not ended.

Jaitley, who left early, did not talk to waiting mediapersons.

Prasad said, “There was a consensus for improvement and the need for making it (appointment of judges) more transparent.” Asked whether there was a consensus to scrap the collegium system, he said it will not be appropriate for him to make a public statement in this regard.

The bid to scrap the collegium system has been expedited following recent events that showed executive and judiciary holding contradictory views. This was witnessed when senior advocate Gopal Subramanium was segregated from those being elevated to the apex court. 

The SC collegium had also rejected the Law Ministry’s objection on elevating judge of the Karnataka High Court Justice K L Manjunath as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. While turning down the Law Ministry’s objections, it termed them baseless and unfounded.

The move got a fillip in the wake of the disclosure made by former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju on the appointment of a Madras HC judge.

Those who attended the meeting at Vigyan Bhawan here included former CJIs A M Ahmadi, V N Khare, eminent jurists F S Nariman, K Parasaran, K K Venugopal, Anil B Divan, former law minister and senior advocate Shanti Bhushan. 
Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, Law Commission chairman Justice A P Shah, legal academician N R Madhav Menon and Upendra Baxi were also present on the occasion.

Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP K T S Tulsi, who participated in the meeting, refused to elaborate on the point of discussion. 

Sources said the discussions were held predominantly on the proposed Judicial Appointments Commission Bill. Also on the agenda were other reforms related to the judiciary, including the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, which the previous UPA government had brought in.

The judges to higher judiciary are appointed under the memorandum of procedure for appointment of judges — in which a collegium comprising Chief Justice of India and four seniormost judges in case of the Supreme Court and Chief Justice along with two seniormost judges recommend names for the posts in high courts.

The primacy given to the collegium system is based on the apex court judgment of October 6, 1996 in the case of SC Advocates on Record and others versus Union of India and others, and its opinion given on Presidential Reference on October 28, 1998.

The proposed Judicial Appointments Commission would scrap the present system of judges appointing judges.

A Parliament panel had in March 2013 asked the government to “fast-track” the review of appointment of judges in the high courts and the Supreme Court, holding the present collegium system responsible for non-fulfilment of vacancies as well as huge pendency of cases.

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(Published 28 July 2014, 20:30 IST)

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