Govt again asks SC to review judges’ selection process

NEW DELHI: The Centre has again written to the Supreme Court collegium asking it to review the current system of judges appointing judges, a major point of friction between the government and the judiciary.

The latest communiqué from the law ministry cites a July 5 judgment of the SC in which two judges had called for “the need to revisit the process of selection and appointment of judges”. The Centre wrote to the court registrar general last week asking if the SC collegium would like to review its position.

In the justice (retd) CS Karnan contempt case, justices Jasti Chelameswar and Ranjan Gogoi wrote on the need for an “appropriate legal regime” other than impeachment to deal with errant judges. Impeachment is a very slow process and no one has ever been impeached in the country.

Parliament had passed the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act in the first year of the BJP-led government’s tenure and it came into effect on April 13, 2015. But the law, which aimed to end the two-decade old collegium system, was struck down by a five-judge SC bench .

In a separate order on December 16, 2015, the bench asked the Centre to come up with a fresh memorandum of procedure (MoP), the guiding document for such appointments. The law ministry sent a draft MOP to the collegium. The collegium sent back the draft reiterating its objections in March after which the ministry did not respond.