SC, Centre mustn’t find faults, need balance: CJI
NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud on Friday stressed on the need of “constitutional statesmanship” between the Union government and the apex court, saying the two institutions cannot keep finding fault with each other in matters of judicial appointments, at a time when the Centre continues sitting on several recommendations by the Supreme Court collegium to appoint judges.
With Union law minister Kiren Rijiju in attendance at a function organised to celebrate Law Day, the CJI called for “harmony” and “balance” as he was emphatic that the collegium does a lot of homework before names are sent to the government for notifying appointments, and therefore the two institutions need to work as constitutional statesman to finding just conclusions.
“So much of the work of the collegium takes place when an agenda is circulated, but so much of the work of the collegium takes place much earlier and much thereafter when we leave over a cup of coffee or when we share the thought over a cup of coffee. So, you must also understand that there is something called a soft culture within the judiciary as well,” said justice Chandrachud.
“We, as judges are not here only to only follow the letter of the law by following the processes of the collegium, but for the purpose of ensuring that the soft culture, that sense of constitutional statesmanship between the government and the Supreme Court continue to be in harmony to find the right balance in the selection of judges. We can’t be constitutional statesmen if we are only at a point where we are finding fault with each other,” he said.
The CJI’S statements at the event organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) come days after the law minister’s strong and consistent criticism of the apex court’s model of selecting judges through the collegium system.