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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Supreme necessity

Supreme necessity

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published Published on Dec 7, 2010   modified Modified on Dec 7, 2010


After widespread dissatisfaction about the lack of transparency and oversight in critical judicial appointments, there are now signs that the government is trying to figure out how to roll back the collegium system by which judges select their own with no external inputs. The Supreme Court’s collegium, which is made up of the Chief Justice of India and four other senior judges, recommends appointments to the court after a mandatory consultation with the government. While the government can demur and supply the basis for its disagreement, the CJI’s and collegium’s view is final, if they choose to stick by the candidate. The collegium’s primacy was established in 1993 and further fortified in 1998, but since then many, including former CJIs, have called for some modification.The secretive and self-willed manner in which judges are appointed came to a head last year over the possible appointment of the then Karnataka Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran to the SC. After a sustained campaign that questioned Dinakaran’s probity, the collegium reconsidered its decision. Arrogating such awesome power to the collegium is seen to be problematic because their decision is practically irreversible, given the difficulty of impeaching or otherwise removing a judge. Also, this way, the decision rarely comes to wider attention until the deed is done; the written opinions are also hidden away from the public. In the US, by contrast, when the president nominates a judge, she is subjected to intense and public grilling by the Senate, which also confers on her a certain legitimacy. Some suggest enlarging the executive’s role in the appointment process, others reverting to the pre-collegium system where the president picked the candidate after consultation with the CJI. There’s also debate on the best way to bring this about, a bill on the lines of the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, or a constitutional amendment. However, the question is whether this politically polarised climate is the right time to venture on such an important and delicate step, which involves cross-party consensus.

 


The Indian Express, 7 December, 2010, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/supreme-necessity/721346/


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