PM Narendra Modi reaches out to CJI to ease judiciary-executive tensions

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached out to Chief Justice of India T S Thakur to break the ice over the prolonged impasse on judicial appointments, high-level sources said.

The two dignitaries met at the Gujarat governor’s residence in Gandhinagar on Saturday, coinciding with Modi’s 66th birthday, after the prime minister’s office ( PMO) sent an invitation to the chief justice who was in the state to inaugurate a state-level judicial officers’ conference, sources said on Sunday.

The meeting lasted for over 40 minutes and all outstanding issues were presumably discussed, they said, refusing to share further details. The meeting came after several months of tension between the judiciary and the executive which has held up judicial appointments.

Thakur had last month lamented the paucity of staff and funds for the judiciary with tears in his eyes. Tensions started after the Modi government passed the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act immediately after coming to power on a huge majority in May 2014, giving the government the final say on appointments to the superior judiciary.

The SC struck it down saying that it was an inroad into judiciary’s independence and it would prefer to have the final say over such appointments.

The situation worsened after the government tried to indirectly have a say over such appointments by insisting on including some controversial clauses such as “threat to national security” in the procedure of appointing judges.

This would enable the government to shoot down any judge it did not like, so top court collegiums did not agree to it. Thakur, angered by a perceived slowdown in clearing appointments amidst this logjam, hit back at the government demanding to know why it was sitting on the files, and threatened to pass judicial orders to get the government moving.