Saturday 16 August 2014

National Judicial Appointment Commission

In the previous month the one topic which grabbed the attention of all the readers throughout India was the controversy regarding the Collegium System of Judiciary and the alleged charges of corruption against former Chief Justices. Collegium refers to the system under which appointments and transfers of judges are decided by a forum comprising of Chief Justice of India and the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court. This system has no recognition in the eyes of the constitution but has been successfully appointing the Chief Justices of the country for the last twenty years. This system was questioned several times for being very opaque and nurturing corruption.Initiatives were taken to replace or improve this system manier times in past few years but Justice Markandey Katju’s revealing the truth behind the appointment and extension of a corrupt judge in Madras High Court was the last straw in this matter.
Justice Katju revealed that Collegium System of Judiciary granted extension to an additional judge who had many adverse entries against him confirmed after an IB inquiry. As he was supported by TN Party which was an ally of then UPA Government so out of fear of constitutional crisis he was given another extension and further was made permanent by the next Chief Justice of India. This showed the height of political influence on the collegium system and the malignity spread due to its opaqueness.

In order to replace this Collegium System of Judiciary, National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2014 was passed in the previous parliament session. Now the judges will be appointed by a six member committee including Law Minister, Chief Justice of India, two Supreme Court judges and two eminent citizens. As per the provisions of the bill eminent citizens are selected through another high level committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha. As per the bill at least five persons out of six have to agree on each judge’s appointment. This bill gives veto power to its two members. The President can return the recommendation for reconstructions, but if the committee unanimously resends the recommendation to the President, he has no other option but to accept it. This new system brings an end to the judge appointing judge system devised by the Three Judges Cases by the Supreme Court in which the Judiciary had primacy in the appointment of judges. But as per the new bill the executive through President has primacy in appointment of judges.

The major significance of this bill is that it provides transparency in the matter of appointment of the judges. Other than this it strengthens the essence of the constitution by the balancing nature in which the right decision is taken after arguments and counterarguments between the two pillars of government i.e. Judiciary and Executive.
As suggested by the standing Parliamentary Committee the NAJC should be seven member committee instead of six as proposed in the bill in which there must be three eminent persons with one of them being either a women or from the minority community or from SC/ST community. This will not only ensure representation of entire society in the committee but will also act as a means to remove social disparity prevailing in the country.

This bill is perfect to the core but thinking that this will completely transform the Judiciary of India would be over exaggerating its future effects because the root cause of problem i.e. the corruption because of which the Collegium System was scrapped lies in the decreasing morals and values of the people. In which they pay more heed to money and position rather than virtues and morals. As a result of which they try to achieve the material things around them loosing themselves owing to which their character weakens and after some time worse to worst things and acts have no effect on them. So if we want to have a concrete change in the government and society on the whole the focus should be to enhance the decreasing morals and values of the people which will take us all forward in a world which is progressive in every field.

Kshitija Mishra

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