Judges ask for primacy in Judge selection

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday held consultations with eminent jurists who underlined the need for replacing the collegium system of appointing judges to the higher judiciary with a new process. Some insisted that a multi-disciplinary panel should select the candidates. The meeting, convened by law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, was attended by finance minister Arun Jaitley and former chief justices of India A Ahmedi and VN Khare. The discussions saw judges, lawyers and the government expressing different views, according to a source.

Other jurists present included Fali Nariman, Soli Sorabjee, former Delhi HC chief justice AP Shah, Shanti Bhushan, K Parasaran, KTS Tulsi, KK Venugopal, Ashok Desai, NR Madhavan Menon and Anil Dewan. Professor Upendra Buxi, a reputed political scientist, also attended. The sources said Ahmedi and Khare batted for maintaining the primacy of the judiciary is selection of judges to HCs and the SC while those representing the government expressed a keenness for changing the present system of “judges appointing judges”.

The lawyers present in the meeting broadly agreed that the present “predominance of the judiciary” in appointing judges had not worked well and cautioned that the new system should not lead perpetuate the collegium system by another name.

Government has been working on bringing the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill to Parliament at the earliest. The law ministry had written to 25 political parties to seek their views on the issue and also sought to know if they still maintain the position they held during the erstwhile NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Today’s meeting was another effort in the direction of soliciting views of a cross-section before bringing the Bill. While the government is reportedly making endeavors to introduce the

Judicial Appointments Commission Bill in the on-going session of Parliament, sources said passage of the legislation – that will effect a Constitutional Amendment – would be difficult in such a short time. Moreover, the bill is likely to face legal hurdles as sections within the judiciary are vehemently opposed to relinquishing its power to appoint judges.