WHO BELLS THE CAT?

Controversies abound on the issue of appointment of judges to the higher judiciary. The Collegium system in place might need some rethink

- By Mathews J Nedumpara

EDITOR'S NOTE: The above news item has been uppermost in all minds of late. Law ministers have tried and failed in their attempts to collar in the top judiciary's power of appointing themselves. In 2014, the NDA government tried to change the system by introducing the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act. In 2015, the Act was struck down by the Supreme Court, so the Collegium remained the primary mode of appointment. The government may raise an objection to any recommendation for appointment, but if the Collegium rejects such objection and sends the recommendation back to the executive, the government is bound to concede defeat.

At the same time, judges incorporating the selection process within the justice system and under the supervision of the SC is a 'poison pill' of sorts, that stops the executive from meddling in the functioning of the justice system. While that is a good thing, the reverse, sometimes, creates problems, in which the Supreme Court may have, inadvertently, stepped into the executive domain.

The most critical question to be asked is not if the judges should appoint themselves, but whether the justice department should be accorded powers equivalent to Parliament.

WHO becomes the Chief Justice of India? Today, this is a set-piece move, and we all know, years in advance, as to which judge will be the next Chief Justice of India. The seniority criterion seems well entrenched. Seniority rules in almost all democracies, with, probably, the sole exception being Pakistan, if we consider Pakistan to be an on-off democracy, that is.