NEWS SCAN

The Supreme Court collegium has rejected the Narendra Modi government’s move in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) including a security clause and a committee of retired judges to evaluate the applications of candidates before forwarding them to the the panel whether to recommend their names for elevation or appointment as judges.

According to a Supreme Court source, the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) T S Thakur and four other senior most judges in their recent meeting have rejected most of the government’s move to have a greater say in the appointment of judges.

The government, which sent the MoP last week to the collegium, was stick to its stand and wanted merit and seniority to be the criteria for appointing judges but it is learnt that judiciary has rejected saying the existing practice of seniority combined with merit to continue.In addition, the judges panel also rejected the clause of national security, involvement of retired judges in appointment of judges and also the participation of Attorney General and Advocate General of states in appointment procedure.

Earlier, after meeting with Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and then law minister D V Sadanand Gowda, CJI had expressed his reservation.Ravishankar Prasad, who took over today as the new law minister, “Government is willing to work in harmony with the judiciary and appoint the right persons as judges.”

The appointment of more than 400 judges in the Apex Court and High Courts across the country has been caught in a tussle between the judiciary and the government over the procedure.With the difference between two organs, filling up of the vacancies is likely to be further delayed.

Parliament had enacted the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act to replace the over two-decade old collegium system for judges appoint judges. However, the law was struck down by the apex court in October last year.While deciding to make the collegium system more transparent, had asked the Centre to redraft the MoP in consultation with the states.The MoP is a document which guides the appointment of judges to the high courts and top court.The government had sent the MoP to the collegium in March. The CJI had returned the document in May raising objections to the various clauses.

As carried in DNA on 7.7.16