New Delhi: The debate over the effectiveness of collegium of judges has surfaced again. Supreme Court Judge Chelameswar has sought to justify his absence from the collegium meeting saying that there is a necessity of making the system more transparent.
He called on the collegium to record minutes of meetings to make them public as well as highlight the reasons for the selection and rejection of judges. He said he will start attending meetings once such measures are introduced to the collegium system.
Justice Chelameswar said, "I am making an attempt to make the system transparent. All I am asking is let the minutes of the collegium meeting be recorded. Let collegium record give reason for selection or rejection of judges. If the collegium adopts transparency I will start attending the meeting."
Justice Chelameswar, who had written a dissenting verdict with regard to non-transparency in the collegium system of appointment, has also reportedly shot off a letter to Chief Justice TS Thakur expressing his inability to take part in the meeting of the Collegium, which consists of five senior most judges including the Chief Justice of India, a highly-placed source said.
It has come to light that except Justice Chelameswar, all other judges, including Justice Thakur, had assembled for the meeting on Thursday which ultimately got postponed.
Justice Chelameswar was backed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju who said that the collegium system only favours the corrupt and the incompetent.
"I totally support the stand of Justice Chelameswar which is a very principled stand because he has said that this present collegium system has no transperency, it's totaly opaque. He has demanded that the minutes of the meeting be recorded and publicised, what is wrong in that. Presently, this collegium system has given some of the worst judges in the country, many judges who are corrupt, incompetent they have been selected because the proceedings are entirely opaque no body knows what goes behind. I call this system I scratch your back, you scratch my back system -- Justice A tells Justice B that you accept my man and I accept yours. This is how the system functions like some sort of bargaining. Is this how you select judges," Katju said.
Calling the collegium system rotten, Justice Katju also hit out at Chief Justice TS Thakur accusing him of misconduct.
He wrote on his personal blog where he said, "How could Justice Thakur be allotted land when he served as Judge of Karnataka High Court when it was a Constitutional authority. Did Thakur influence decision to appoint his brother as a judge of the J&K High Court in 2013? Justice Thakur has called on judges to work during vacations and barred them from going abroad while he went abroad twice in 2016. Did Justice Thakur's father - former Deputy CM of J&K Devi Das Thakur influence his career path."
The apex court judiciary and the government have been at loggerheads on the finalisation of the MoP which will deal with the procedures to be followed in the appointment of judges in High Courts and the Supreme Court.
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