Government consults jurists for scrapping collegium system of judges' appointment

NEW DELHI: Seeking to scrap the collegium system for appointment of judges, the government today consulted former chief justices of India and top jurists on the proposed Judicial Appointments Commission bill.

Also on the agenda today was other reforms related to the judiciary including the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill which the previous UPA government had brought.

Prominent among those who attended today's consultations included former chief justices A M Ahmadi and V N Khare.

The government was represented by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Former Attorney General and Rajya Sabha MP K Parasaran and eminent lawyers Soli Sorabjee, Fali Nariman, K T S Tulsi and K K Venugopal were among the senior jurists who attended the consultations.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar were also present.

The Law Minister had on July 21 said the government is seeking the views of various political parties and eminent jurists for setting up a Judicial Appointments Commission which would scrap the present system of judges appointing judges.

The NDA government is not averse to the previous UPA government's plan to put the composition and functions of the proposed Judicial Appointments Commission Bill in the Constitution, sources said.

By giving the composition and functions of the proposed commission Constitutional status, UPA had sought to allay fears of the judiciary that the composition and functions can be tweaked by government.

The practice of judges appointing judges started after 1993, replacing the system of government picking judges for higher judiciary comprising the Supreme Court and high courts.

The move to set aside the 1993 Supreme Court judgment, which led to the collegium system, requires a constitutional amendment.