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Now, Centre gets going to replace judges’ collegium

The move has gathered momentum following the expose made by former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju on how an incriminating report from the intelligence bureau regarding an additional judge of the Madras High Court was overlooked while giving him extension in office and later confirming him as a judge in another high court.

Soon after the expose by Justice Katju, union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, while making a statement on the floor of the House, said: ‘There is an imperative need to improve upon the system of appointment of honourable judges.’ Prasad since then is reported to have written to eminent jurists seeking their opinion on the matter. Sources in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) said the Katju case may have provided the push at the right moment for taking the case for a judicial commission forward but the government had made up its mind on the issue when it had to lock horns with the Supreme Court on elevation of senior counsel Gopal Subramanium to the Supreme Court bench.

The government was represented by law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and finance minister Arun Jaitley.

Setting up of the National Judicial Commission for the appointment of judges was part of the BJP manifesto released ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Several appointments of Supreme Court judges recommended by the collegiums of judges in the past few years have invited controversy, a notable one being that of Justice PD Dinakaran, whose name was withdrawn in 2009 by collegiums after the government rejected it. In the past two years, more than half-a-dozen names recommended by different High Courts for appointment as judges were returned due to allegations.

Participating in a debate on the impeachment proceeding of Calcutta High Court judge Justice Soumitra Sen, then Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley had told Rajya Sabha: ‘The system of judges alone appointing judges must now change. India needs a National Judicial Commission to appoint judges.’ In the course of the debate, Jaitley, himself a senior apex court counsel, had said the commission’s members can be drawn from the judiciary and executive, besides prominent citizens.

‘Jaitley’s address to the Rajya Sabha during the impeachment proceedings of Justice Sen would function as the guiding light for the drafting of the bill, which the government is trying to bring in at the earliest,’ said sources.

It was during the previous NDA regime, when Jaitley was law minister, that the first attempt was made to bring a legislation to replace the collegium system of appointments. The bill lapsed following the dissolution of the Lok Sabha in 2004. The UPA II government resumed the process bringing a constitutional amendment bill to establish the said commission. It remained pending in Rajya Sabha. With a general political consensus on the matter, the government should not find the passage of the bill to be a problem now.
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