September 15, 2014

6 Reasons why Judicial Appointment Bill is against the Constitution #Knowhow

1) Under the Constitution of India, Judiciary is not placed under the Executive (Under Prime Minister or under President). Their salaries are directly paid from Treasury. No one can stop their salaries.

2) The Framers of Constitution had bitter experience of "Govt selected judges" during British Period.

They tried to ensure that judicial appointments in independant India does not have element of "Government Selected Judges".

They ensured this by saying that no judge will be appointed without consent of Chief Justice of India.

3) The government did not like this independence given to judiciary by Framers of Constitution of India.

So they used to block all appointments until Chief Justice agreed to appoint 50% "Govt Selected Judges". And this battles went on up to 1993.

4) The above problem was resolved by 5 judges in 1993 and 9 Judges in 1998 by evolving a collegium system.

5) The collegium system has some problems. These need to be addressed by Judiciary itself.

But these problems cannot be used as a ground to go back to pre 1993 position.

6) This will be against the framework of Constitution.

The framework cannot be altered by any constitutional amendment. Any such amendment of constitution can be struck down by any High Court or Supreme Court.

Such is the law as per my humble view.

Haresh Raichura
15/9/14