COLLEGIUM SYSTEM AND JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS

• The Supreme Court on Thursday said nobody was stopping the Union government from bringing a new law on judicial appointments, but till then, the Collegium system and its Memorandum of Procedure was the “final word”.
• The court’s remarks came after Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar on Wednesday criticised the striking down of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act by a Constitution Bench in October 2015.
• “Yes, Parliament has the power to enact laws. The government can ask Parliament to lay down a new law. Nobody can prohibit it. You want to bring a new law, gather consensus, you can always do that.
• However, then you may have to stand the scrutiny of a challenge… The scheme of the Constitution requires the court to be the final arbiter on the position of a law as enacted by Parliament,” Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, leading a three-judge Bench, addressed Attorney-General R. Venkataramani, for the government.
• The court said the law on judicial appointments to the High Courts, as it stood now, was the Collegium system evolved by the Supreme Court in the Three Judges cases.
• “Our job is to enforce the law as it exists now. When you (government) lay down a law, you expect the Supreme Court to enforce it. Similarly, if a law (Collegium system) is laid down by the Supreme Court, then the government is equally bound to follow the law… Till the law of Collegium is prevalent, it should be followed to the ‘T’,” Justice Kaul admonished.
• Not well-taken
• The court said comments made by high authorities about the Collegium were not “well-taken”. “We have to follow the Collegium system no matter what people would speak of the Collegium rightly or wrongly at the right place or the wrong place… If every person or section of society decides what law to follow, there will be a complete breakdown,” Justice Kaul said.
• Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had been attacking the Collegium over the past days for its “opacity” even as the government remained incommunicado over Collegium recommendations of names to fill up judgeships.
• Supreme Court Bar Association president, senior advocate Vikas Singh, urged the court to issue contempt action to bring the government in line. He said the comments made by the government directly attacked the court’s constitutional power of judicial review.
• The court said it cannot engage in a “ping-pong battle” or a “blame game” over Collegium recommendations.
• “You are sending back names twice over, thrice over… How many times? That is, if you don’t find a name palatable, you will not appoint… Once a name is reiterated by the Collegium, there is no other passage for you but to appoint the person as judge,” Justice Kaul said.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB