Transparency
in Judiciary
The collegium, comprising the Chief Justice of
India and four senior judges, has said it would indicate the reasons behind
decisions on the initial appointment of candidates to High Court benches, their
confirmation as permanent judges and elevation as High Court Chief Justices and
to the Supreme Court, and transfer of judges and Chief Justices from one High
Court to another.
This is to ensure transparency, yet maintain
confidentiality in the Collegium system. This balancing of transparency
and confidentiality will augur well for the judiciary.
Given the perception that family members and
former colleagues of judges are more likely to be appointed high court judges,
it is essential that a system to widen the zone of consideration is put in
place. SC needs to understand that mere transparency will not help. The
process of selection should be based on merit, lack of conflicting interest,
track record and not based on identities
Anyway, the decision is good one, but the law
must be equal to all the same in treating the prisoners in jail. People bestow
their hopes on judiciary in the backdrop of alleged scams, corruption,
misappropriation, embezzlement and a host of other misdemeanor. So, the supreme
state of integrity of judiciary is an inevitability. To achieve this enviable
reputation, transparency in all matters connected with its functioning is a sine
qua non.
The new initiative is a welcome gesture. Nice
Initiative for the transparency. Unless there is a full disclosure of
appointment procedure and the criteria, the filling of vacancies may not be
without controversies. For transparency, whole system of appointment should be
open so that public can retain faith in judiciary. Transparency in judicial
appointment is a move in right direction and should be welcomed. The Recent
episode involving Justice Mr. C. S. Karnanan should give the Supreme Court
collegium enough information about deficiency, loopholes in the selection
system. The need of the time is to address such deficiency as well to avoid
future embarrassment to the system. Having transparency without fixing the
selection criteria will undermine public faith in the Judicial system.
Transparency should be consistent and there
shouldn't be any kind of negligence or compromise in such salient matters. This
step which doesn't give any resort to personal opinions is a big welcome.
The great institution that seeks transparency
from everyone else is itself devoid of any. Any piecemeal solution is defeating
the very purpose of the transparency. The judiciary who know merits of every
case before making judgement in a transparent manner is starting to become
transparent inside its own house following a procedure. It is important this
pillar of Indian democracy is governed by a rule for themselves, who gets
empowered to judge people.
The disclosure norm is the best efforts taken
towards the reformation of judicial system. Now, the citizen will also be able
to know about their judges. Transparency is always helpful to run any country
in correct direction.
In the resignation of Justice Jayant Patel it
is very difficult to erase the suspicion that the Collegium buckled and surrendered
flat and wholeheartedly to political pressure and interference. However much
they may deny it will take a long time to convince the legal fraternity and the
intelligent public opinion that the Collegium has a mind of its own and not
taking instructions from the PMO's office. It has been impossible to accept any
kind of justification for the transfer of Justice Patel and denying him his CJ
position. Are we again seeing the mockery that we saw when Justice A N Ray
superseded three of his seniors.
On the whole, this is a good beginning. Judges
must be appointed as soon as there is vacancy and even to clear backlog of
cases. Delay in justice is giving politicians and bureaucracy extra powers to
exploit people.
No comments:
Post a Comment