New Delhi: Hailing the Supreme Court collegium proposal against the appointment of close kin of the judges in the high courts, noted lawyer and Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi has said they should be implemented sooner as judicial appointments are “non objective” that originally conceived.
“If true, both proposals under SC collegium consideration, seemingly radical, are good and should be implemented sooner rather than later,” Singhvi said in a post on X. “Reality of judicial appointments is much murkier and much much more non objective than originally conceived. Mutual Back scratching, uncle judges, family lineages etc demoralise others and bring disrepute to institution,” he said. “But easier said than done: till now we are unable to even ban lawyer relatives practising in the same HC as judge relatives. Time and again the system has proved stronger than desirable impulses for reform,” Singhvi lamented.
The Congress leader said he wrote decades ago that collegium judges should disguise themselves and sit in courts of those judges being considered for elevation or lawyers in action before elevation.
“Like some sultans of old used to do in ancient times to learn what are the real problems of their fiefdom. We would all be astonished (and scared) at the hiatus between cv and reality, between paper appraisal versus court performance. Interviews proposed now are not as good as my suggestion but at least second best, though surprise checks in disguise are not entirely unrealistic!!,” he said in his post.
The Apex Court collegium may consider an idea against the appointment of close kin of the judges in the high courts, sources have said.