The Apex Court has given its views on the comments by Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju about the Collegium system of appointing judges along with talking about the Collegium recommendations not getting cleared by the government
A bench comprising of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice AS Oka have warned the Union Government against passing a judicial orders for making sure that the recommendation by Collegium are cleared.
Justice Kaul in a tone of concern and anger said to the Attorney General R Venkataramani who was representing the Central government that he has been hearing it all over the media and has ignored the reports but now this is little beyond that as this has come from somebody high enough also with an interview.
The Justice added that if we have to, we will take a decision and kindly get this resolved before a judicial decision is taken in this regard.
The bench without naming anyone, made a quick reference to the interview given by Law Minister Rijiu at the Times Now Summit.
The Law minister said that the Central government cannot be accused for sitting over collegium recommendations and the judges’ body should not expect the government to simply sign off on all the recommendations.
The law minister clearly said that it is only till a new system is in place that the Collegium system recommendations will be given weightage.
Kiren Rijiju further said that the government will do its due diligence before acting on Collegium recommendations.
The Apex Court said that the government can certainly put forward its objections to the recommendations made by Collegium, but cannot hold back names without conveying any reservations.
The bench said that it is questioning on the High Court names which are pending since 1.5 years.
The bench said that it is nothing but creating anguish and frustration and questioning the method of appointment, we only issued notice to find out problem
The Court said that timelines are to be followed and just not only laid out. The bench said that many recommendations are pending.
The bench believes in good people joining the bench and timeline has to be adhered to unless there is an exception.
The bench asked why has there been no information in the cases they just recommended which have crossed the timeline of 4 month limit.
It also lamented how such delays were affecting seniority of judges.
The Court remarked that once the names have been reiterated it completely disturb the seniority.
The court has adjourned the matter for hearing on December 8 after the Attorney General and Solicitor General assured the Court that they will look into the matter.