Judges' appointment is no Military Strategy, make it Transparent and Accountable

September,8,2016:

Justice K T Thomas, former Judge of the Supreme Court feels the Executive and the Supreme Court should work together to further strengthen Collegium.

The issues highlighted by Justice J Chelameswar, in his letter written to the Chief Justice of India, need immediate and very serious consideration. People have a growing fear in their minds that a big tussle is going on between the Judiciary and the Executive.

He questioned as to why the appointment of judges to the High Courts and the Supreme Court has been reduced to a mechanism of utmost secrecy and is known only to four or five persons in the country as members of a Collegium.

Justice Thomas observed that he understand that there are many sitting Supreme Court judges  who are of the view that the majority decision in the NJAC case was wrong.

Supreme Court must be given another opportunity for considering a re-evaluation. The government should initiate another reference to the court for consideration of the issue by a still larger Bench of 11 or 13 Judges.

He said that transparency does not mean that every step will have to be brought to public notice rather it involves subjectivity.

The reasons are important, such as why one person is selected to the exclusion of others or why a certain person.

All the aspects and reasons should be finally communicated to the government.

This is of utmost importance as it is the Government or the Cabinet, which as per the Constitution, is supposed to advice the President of India for making the appointments of judges and hence the Govt. of the day of the Union of India must know all the reasons concerning everything that transpires in the matter of final selection of judges, from the beginning till the selection point.

As per him the best available talents from all points of view must be selected and this cannot be done if SC Collegium confine the selection only to the Chief Justices of various High Courts.

He lamented that he decision-making process should not be shrouded in utmost secrecy and not traceable in future by anyone, whether it is Executive, Judiciary or other Constitutional functionaries.

Justice Thomas has been a judge of the Apex Court and also a member of the collegium,