From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Former Supreme Court judge Madan B Lokur has warned in an interview to a news agency (IANS) against the executive trying to take complete control over the judges’ appointments from the way it is dealing with the recommendations of the collegium and if it succeeds, India will cease to have an independent judiciary.
He said nobody knows why senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal, who is openly gay, has not been appointed as a judge to the Delhi High Court? Also, it is improper to accuse several Supreme Court judges of giving an alien interpretation to the Constitution.
And, on the row over the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, he said the central government stubbornly decided that it should be its way or the highway.
Questioning law minister Kiren Rijiju describing the collegium system as “allien” to the Constitution, Justice Lokur said: “The collegium system is the result of decisions rendered by the Supreme Court over a period of several years. It is not an overnight development. Judgments delivered by a Bench of 9 judges of the Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution resulting in the collegium in its present form. It is improper to accuse several Supreme Court judges of giving an alien interpretation to the Constitution.”
“Judges have always been independent even before the collegium system. Governments and ministers did not like it, on occasions, but accepted and tolerated it. Primacy was accorded to the Chief Justice of India. Not so today. It appears that the executive does not want independent judges but wants a committed judiciary. If it succeeds in its misadventure, India will cease to have an independent judiciary to the detriment of all of us,” said the former SC judge.
