Draft MoP on judges appointment to be sent to CJI

NEW DELHI: The Law Ministry has held consultations with the Prime Minister's Office and the Attorney General on a new Memorandum of Procedure( MoP) to guide appointment of Supreme Court judges and Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda is likely to soon give the final draft of it to the Chief Justice of India.

The four issues highlighted by the draft MoP are transparency in the appointment process, eligibility criteria, a permanent secretariat for the collegium and a process to evaluate and deal with complaints against candidates.

"Transparency remains the key as an opaque appointment system has drawn criticism," a senior government functionary said.

The Law Ministry is also planning to draft another MoP for appointing Chief Justice and judges of the 24 high courts after getting inputs from Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts.

Gowda had recently written to them seeking their inputs within 15 days.

The final version of the draft is likely to be given to Chief Justice of India T S Thakur by Gowda in the coming days.

Sources said Gowda will seek time from Justice Thakur sometime next week after the apex court opens following winter vacations.

As of now, there are two MOPs -- one dealing with appointment of Chief Justice of India and other judges of the Supreme Court and the other dealing with appointment of Chief Justices and other judges of high courts.

The MoP is a roadmap of procedure on how a judge will be appointed.

The draft MoP for appointment of members to the higher judiciary is being prepared after the Supreme Court struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission ( NJAC) Act on appointment of judges to the apex court and high courts.

While deciding on ways to improve the collegium system, the Supreme Court had recently left it to the law ministry to draft the MoP in consultation with CMs and chief justices of the 24 high courts.

Gowda had recently said that since the new law on appointment of judges has been struck down by the apex court, the draft MoP "will be our prayer to the apex court" to include certain issues to improve the system of judges' appointment making it more transparent.