NEW DELHI: With Kiren Rijiju’s letter to Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud seeking inclusion of government representatives in the decision making process for appointment of judges to the higher judiciary drawing flak, the Union law minister defended his missive saying it was based on the 2015’s bench verdict that struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).
“This is precise follow-up action of the direction of Supreme Court Constitution Bench while striking down the National Judicial Appointment Commission Act. The SC Constitution Bench had directed to restructure the MoP of the collegium system,” Rijiju said in a tweet.
The five-judge bench in 2015 while declaring the NJAC Act as unconstitutional, had agreed to review the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) of the collegium system. Noting that the existing system of judicial appointment required reforms with regards to eligibility, transparency, Secretariat and complaint mechanism, the bench had directed the restructuring of the MoP. However, the MoP is yet to be revamped.
Speaking to this newspaper, senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General Vikas Singh said, “The law minister has either not read the judgment or not understood it. He can’t ask for the Centre to be included in the collegium because collegium is already decided".
"MoP comes into play after the collegium makes a recommendation and the modalities for making final recommendations. According to me, this letter by the government is clearly misconceived and shows complete lack of understanding of the legal position.” Both the AAP and the Congress criticised the letter, saying it’s extremely dangerous.