NEW DELHI: “Who is supreme, Parliament or the judiciary? We are lawmakers. Judges are interpreters of the law. We’re the lawmakers.” Deputy Lok Sabha Speaker M Thambidurai’s poser to the Union minister for law and justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad, set the Lower House on course to unanimously assert that the government should revisit the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), which was struck down by the Supreme Court.
Prasad, apparently encouraged by praise from Opposition MPs for introducing the NJAC Bill in 2014, said that he disagreed with the reasoning of the Supreme Court judgment striking down the legislative proposal which was passed with near unanimity by both Houses of Parliament.
When Congress MP KC Venugopal brought up the issue of the government not accepting the Supreme Court collegium’s recommendations for appointment of one judge, whose name was expunged by the Chair, Prasad asserted: “I am not a post office. I will apply my mind.”
The Lok Sabha veered off to discuss the issue of judicial appointments while taking up discussion on the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2018 for passage on Wednesday. The Bill, passed by voice vote, seeks to constitute commercial courts to consider disputes involving Rs 3 lakh or more, with a mandatory pre-mediation clause.
Responding to Thambidurai, Prasad stated, “We have accepted the judgement on NJAC. But as a law student, we have serious reservations about the judgement.” “The reasoning that the law minister, being a member, and the government, being a litigant, would compromise the Commission is not acceptable. We all assist Prime Minister in taking decisions. I totally disagree that a mere association of the law minister would cast aspersions on the Judicial Appointments Commission,” argued Prasad. Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy, apparently referring to the NJAC issue, said, “It’s a loss of face for Parliament”.
Protecting diversity
When CPI MP A Sampath referred to the SC collegium’s recommendations for the appointment of a judge hailing from Kerala, Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “I have to see the diversity of India is taken care of in the appointments.”
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