Help us make judges' selection transparent: SC

'Changes in collegium system only within parameters of 1998 judgment'

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: The Supreme Court on Tuesday invited suggestions for making the working of the collegium for appointment of judges to higher judiciary more transparent and criteria based, but noted the suggested changes could not travel beyond the parameters already spelt out in its 1998 judgment.

While seeking suggestions, a constitution bench comprising Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice J. Chelameswar, Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel asked senior counsel Arvind Dattar and Additiol Solicitor General Pinki And to collate the suggestions including those on which there is commolity of views.

The suggestions have also been invited on the plea for setting up permanent secretariat of the apex court collegium including its composition and how and which kind of complaints trying to red flag an appointment should be entertained. However, it was made clear that anonymous complaints would go to the dustbin.

After collating the various suggestions, Dattar and And would submit their report to the apex court which would hear the matter on November 5 (Thursday).

Both of them would also look into the suggestions sent by eminent people including former judges and senior counsels including activists directly to the apex judges directly after October 16 judgment holding unconstitutiol and void the Constitution’s 99th amendment paving way for setting up the NJAC and the tiol Judicial Appointment Act, 2014.

Dattar, who had appeared for the Madras Bar Association, had opposed the NJAC and Additiol Solicitor General And represented the government.

At the outset of the hearing, Justice Khehar presiding over the bench said that since the pronouncement of the judgment on October 16 holding NJAC unconstitutiol and void, they have received a whole lot of suggestions which are so diverse that the the task of reconciling them is difficult.

“Help us in the first step. We have received suggestions from diverse groups, eminent people like retired judges. They are so many and so diverse. We don’t know how to proceed in the matter. Please tell us how to go about it without adding, subtracting, deleting (the existing collegium system) and maintaining it. We can’t reinvent the wheel,” he said. (IANS)