CJI bats for collegium system, tells executive to avoid 'grandstanding'

‘It Ensures Judicial Independence, But Support More Transparency’

- Dhananjay.Mahapatra timesgroup.com

In a riposte to law and jus-tice minister Kiren Riji-ju’s scathing criticism of the “opaque” collegium system, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Wednesday said the executive must show “constitutional statesmanship and avoid public grandstanding” on the issue even as he batted for a strong collegium system to ensure judicial independence and fairness in selection while conceding that the process needed more judicious transparency.

“No constitutional institution or model is perfect. We need to strengthen the collegium system by ironing out the creases and by being responsive to criticism. Dealing with such issues requires constitutional statesmanship and not public grandstanding,” the CJI told TOI.

The collegium system came into existence — through two constitution bench judgments in 1993 and 1998 — to uphold the principles of judicial independence and separation of powers, he said. “Appointment of judges through the collegium system is intended to ensure fairness and secure the rule of law. The system ensures independence of the judiciary by ensuring that recommendations for appointments are free of external influence,” CJI Chandrachud said.