No wriggle room for Govt after fresh SC reiterations
One interesting fallout from the Centre’s intransigence on the issue of judges appointing judges was the Supreme Court collegium issuing detailed explanations on fresh reiterations of five candidates for the judgeship in high courts. Its total demolition of the government’s reservations that cited inputs from intelligence agencies about them was unprecedented. This was also the first time the collegium was coaxed into putting its reasoning in the public domain in over three years. The rare gust of transparency contrasted against the SC collegium’s otherwise opaque recommendations, as the court generally puts up bland lists of the chosen ones for promotion, transfer, or both on its website. The other aspect that stood out was its emphasis on competence, merit and integrity while refusing to read meaning into the sharp social media posts they might have made against the government of the day. That the candidates had no overt affiliation with any political party or any other biases were factors. But as it pointed out, all citizens have the right to free speech and expression.
On a different note, the parents of three of the five candidates are retired judges—Saurabh Kirpal’s dad is former Chief Justice of India B N Kirpal; Amitesh Banerjee is the son of former SC judge U C Banerjee; and Sakya Sen’s dad is Shyamal Sen, retired Allahabad High Court Chief Justice. A lazy inference would be of nepotism, but the collegium was impressed by their core competencies in the Bar and inferred they would enrich the bench. The BJP’s antipathy for Justice Banerjee is known, as a probe commission headed by him ruled out any conspiracy angle in the Sabarmati Express blaze that killed 58 kar sevaks in Godhra in 2002. Lalu Yadav appointed the panel during his tenure as railways minister in UPA-I. As for Sakya Sen, this was his third reiteration, drawing an angry comment from the collegium that it was not open to the law department to send back a reiterated file for fresh consideration repeatedly.
Saurabh Kirpal’s reiteration made the biggest headlines because if appointed, he would be India’s first openly gay judge of a high court. The collegium gave him credit for being open about his sexual orientation and dismissed objections about his partner being a Swiss national. After these reiterations, the government has no room to stall. It must quickly announce the appointments and uphold the majesty of the judiciary.