In its bid to bring Opposition parties on board for a productive monsoon session of Parliament, the UPA government on Monday reached out to the BJP to seek their views on a piece of legislation that aims at replacing collegium system of judicial appointments in higher courts.
The pending legislation intends to bring national judicial commission that will bring transparency and give a say to the executive in appointments to Supreme Court and High Courts. Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal and BJP leader Arun Jaitley discussed the broad draft of the legislation on the proposed Judicial Commission, which successive governments have been trying to get Parliament to pass for more than a decade now.
Confirming his meeting, Jaitley told reporters, "I have always been in support of the National Judicial Commission, and I have made some suggestions to Kapil Sibal. It is for the government to consider them...
I can actually foresee a larger consensus evolving, subject to a broader agreement on the composition and nature of its (NJC’s) functioning".
Without disclosing details, Sibal accepted that the government and Opposition were broadly on the same page as far as doing away with collegium system of judicial appointments was concerned.
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