Chief Justice of India RM Lodha rises in defence of collegium system

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India RM Lodha has denied that the Supreme Court collegium had recommended the elevation of Karnataka High Court judge KL Manjunath as chief justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, hitting back at the critics of the collegium system who have been touting it as yet another instance of the opacity and non-accountability of the appointment process.

Manjunath has been under a cloud over allegations of his alleged involvement in several dubious land deals. "As far as I know I am the Chief Justice of India and I head the collegium, unless there's another collegium I don't know about. We have not recommended that Manjunath be elevated as the chief justice of Punjab and Haryana High court," Justice Lodha said on Monday, during a hearing on a PIL that sought to have the facts placed in public domain to save the judiciary from further disrepute.

Justice Lodha described the reports about Manjunath's elevation as a "misleading campaign". "Transfer is one thing, elevation is a different thing," he said while dismissing the petition, hinting perhaps that Justice Manjunath was being transferred.

CJI's comments came after a section of the media reported the government had retur ned Manjunath's name with its objections but collegium had sent it back, making it binding on the government to accept the recommendation.

"Your entire petition is founded on the assumption that Manjunath's name has been recommended as Punjab (and Haryana) High Court chief justice. Repeated attempts are being made to spread facts which are factually incorrect. Then the chorus starts that a person against whom allegations are being made is being elevated," Justice Lodha said.

"Every report is claiming that. But I know as I am the person concerned (who takes the decision). For God's sake don't bring petitions based on nonexistent facts. We don't know how a responsible institution like the media gets such information."

CJI said the system was "not perfect" and had its limitations, but added it would be wrong to claim that it had not worked at all. He said, "Not everything is perfect. It cannot be. We are products of the same society. But for God's sake don't shake the people's confidence in the judiciary. "Please do not bring disrepute to the institution; we are a very important organ of democracy."

CJI said he was one of the first products of the system whereas his fellow judge on the bench, Justice RF Nariman, was the latest. "Now if you say everything is wrong, the collegium has failed. Everything has failed. We can't help it," he said.