NEW DELHI: On a day when Chief Justice of India R M Lodha put up an impassioned defence of the Collegium system, the government introduced the 121st Constitutional Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The Bill seeks to set up a six-member National Judicial Appointments Commission to replace the existing system of judges appointing judges to the Supreme Court and the high courts.
Hours before the new Bill was introduced in the House, where the ruling side has a comfortable majority, the government withdrew the original Judicial Appointment Bill, 2013, of UPA vintage from the Rajya Sabha. The explanation given by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was that the previous government’s “bill is being withdrawn as the Standing Committee had said the provisions shall be made in the Constitution itself” and thus a fresh Bill was the order of the day.
In fact, the fresh Bill seeks to put the proposed Commission and its entire composition in the Constitution to ensure that no future government can bring about changes in the composition of the National Judicial Appointment Commission through an ordinary legislation, without the concurrence of two-thirds of LS members. Along with the Bill, Prasad also piloted a twin Bill that will enable setting up of a Commission, delineating its legal, financial powers and infrastructure. The Bill proposes that the six-member Commission be headed by the CJI and have two seniormost SC judges as members. It also proposes to have the Law Minister and two eminent persons on the panel. More: P5