‘No ego issue, following SC on judge appointments’

NEW DELHI: Union law minister DV Sadanand Gowda said the Centre’s position on the “national interest” clause in the memorandum of procedure, being finalised for appointment of judges, is in sync with SC judgements.
“We have no ego issue. The government is scrupulously following the Supreme Court’s directions on appointment of Judges as laid down in two judgements (on petition filed by Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association) in 1993 and 1998.By insisting on ‘national interest’ clause in MoP, we are not incorporating anything new. We are not inserting it by ourselves. We are just following the mandate of two SC judgments.”
Though the law ministry has agreed to amend certain clauses of MoP in deference to the collegium’s views, it has stuck to its earlier position that the Centre would have the right to reject a name recommended for appointment as a judge of the HC or SC on the ‘national interest’ ground. The SC had struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act last year and directed the government to draw up a fresh MoP in consultation with the CJI-headed collegium after accepting that there had been shortcomings in existing process for selection of persons to be appointed as judges. Transparency of the process and eligibility of persons were two major issues.
The government had on March 22 sent the first draft of MoP to the CJI-headed collegium on March 22. The collegium sent it back to the law ministry on May 22, recording rejection of ‘national interest’ clause. The ministry would now send to collegium a slightly tweaked MoP that retains the ‘national interest’ clause.
Gowda said: “Ordinarily, Judges’ appointment would have been stalled till framing of the new MoP, as directed by the SC. We realised that drafting a new MoP would involve talking the all chief ministers and many stake holders and jurists and take at least five to six months. That is why I had written to the CJI telling him that let appointment of Judges be not stalled and that it could continue as per the old MoP since large vacancies existed. The government at no point of time had delayed judges’ appointment.”
The CJI had recently implored the PM to speed up the process of appointing Judges citing excessive workload for existing judges leading to delay in disposal of cases. Justice Thakur had also talked about appointment of more trial court judges saying their numbers were woefully inadequate to deal with pendency of over 2.8 crore cases. The law minister said from January to March last year, as many as 31 Judges were appointed. In comparison, the government cleared the appointment of 51 Judges during the same period this year.
“We appointed more Judges. The proposal from collegium to appoint four Supreme Court judges was processed by the government in four working days. We are not in confrontation with judiciary,” Gowda said. On appointment of trial court Judges, Gowda said: “It is a matter between the Chief Justice of the concerned high court and the chief minister of the concerned state. The Centre has no role to play in appointment of trial court Judges.”