Late Arun Jaitley said that while the Supreme Court did not fight during the Emergency, people like me — the politicians, who fought out and went to prison."
New Delhi: The present Collegium system of appointment of judges, including the Supreme Court Chief Justice, is not correct and neither transparent nor accountable, the Parliament was told on Wednesday (December 8).
Union Law Minister Kiren Riiu told Lok Sabha that: "There has been a huge support regarding NJAC, so I want to tell the House on record that many retired judges and Supreme Court Bar Association have given me in writing that the present Collegium system of appointment of judges is not correct; not transparent; and not accountable."
He replied to the debate on the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2021, which the House passed with a voice vote. Thus, he implied that the 'reintroduction' of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Bill is possible soon.
The NJAC Act, 2014 enacted by the Narendra Modi government as a giant step towards judicial reforms to regulate the procedure to be followed for recommending names for appointment as Chief Justice of India and other judges of Supreme Court and Chief Justices and Judges of High Courts. However, in 2015, the Supreme Court struck down the same, terming it unconstitutional.
At one point, Mr Rijiu said – "It (the present system) does not even justify the slightest intent with which this provision was made in the Constitution."
In its now-famous October 15 judgment, the Supreme Court had struck down as unconstitutional the NJAC Act and the 99th Constitution Amendment, which provided for the establishment of the National Judicial Commission to appoint judges of the high courts and also the Supreme Court.
The then Minister eloquently countered the court's contention, Arun Jaitley-who had said – "There is no constitutional principle that democracy and its institutions have to be saved from elected representatives… Indian democracy cannot be a tyranny of the unelected; and if the elected are undermined, democracy itself would be in danger."
Late Jaitley also had said – "It was the Supreme Court that caved in (during Emergency) and, therefore, for the court to assume that it alone can defend the nation against Emergency, is belied by history. It was people like me — the politicians, who fought out and went to prison," Arun Jaitley had said.
