Business Standard: New Delhi: Friday,
September 02, 2016.
Inclusion of
the Union Law Minister as a member of the collegium for appointment of judges
would not affect the independence of judiciary, a former Law Minister has said.
The former
Minister and noted lawyer Shanti Bhushan was among several speakers at a
discussion on appointments to the higher and subordinate judiciary, who
stressed the need for greater transparency in the judicial system with some
suggesting bringing the judiciary under purview of the Right to Information
(RTI) Act.
"I
personally see no harm. Even if you introduce a law minister into a team of
five supreme Court judges, what can the minister do? He won't be able to
influence the views of five senior supreme court judges. I don't think this
will affect the independence of the judiciary," Bhushan said.
Bhushan, who
was the Law Minister in the Morarji Desai government, also said that "no
important role can be left to the government because it consists of
politicians. It is impossible to expect politicians of the kind we had in 1950s
or 60s. Ultimately, it is the judiciary which will have to shoulder the various
responsiblities."
He also
alleged there was corruption among subordinate judiciary saying a former
President of district Bar Association in Delhi had told him about it. "So,
what kind of justice can we expect," he asked.
At the debate
organised by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and the Campaign for Judicial
Accountability and Reforms, Dr Mohan Gopal, former Director of the National
Judicial Academy and of NLSIU, opined that judiciary lacked confidence in the
committment of the political executive to the principles of independece of
judiciary.
"NJAC
judgement does not reflect a genuine disagreement between the executive or the
judiciary. Rather it reflects a well founded lack of confidence in the
judiciary in the committment of the political executive to the principles of
independence of judiciary.
"I
think, the judiciary feels that the political leadership of this country is not
committed to the idea of judicial independence and there is a reluctance to
handover the significant power to the political executive in the appointment of
judges," Gopal said.
He also
claimed how the "typical Indian judge is Hindu, upper class, upper-caste
and male" and said "we need an appointment process which will change
and democratise this to include judges from minorities, lower castes,
economically deprived backgrounds etc."
CPI(M) leader
Nilotpal Basu also echoed the need for transperancy in the judiciary.
"Unless we have transparency, we can't have credibility," he said
urging for inclusiveness in the decision-making process in judicial
appointments.
He also
claimed there was an influence of "mob justice" in some recent
judgments, saying "certain death sentences served these days give a clear
impression that the mob which was agitating outside the court have influenced
the decision."
Senior
advocate Anil Divan stressed the importance of having an independent
secretariat with complete control on the functioning of the appointments
process.
Maja
Daruwala, the Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said the
figure of 30 million cases pending before the judiciary was unconscionable and
only worsened due to the judiciary-executive tussle.
Journalist
and author Manoj Mitta pointed to the stand of Justice A P Shah against former
CJI K G Balakrishnan, stressed the need for bringing judiciary under purview of
Right to Information (RTI) Act, saying "for the consumers of justice, the
struggle over primacy between the executive and judiciary is not as important
as that of transparency".
Paul Divakar,
General Secretary of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, spoke about
"disproportionate incarceration" of SC/ST communities by the
judiciary.
"There
are cases in which judgements punishing perpetrators of caste atrocities were
reversed. ... There is reluctance of judicial and police officers to recognise
such atrocities as crimes," he said, while recommending that issues
relating to diversity, social justice and fairness be included in the curricula
of the National Judicial Academy itself.
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