A day after obtaining “consensus” from legal luminaries and constitutional experts on replacing the current collegium system of judicial appointments with a Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), the Government has stepped on the gas to incorporate changes into the JAC Bill and introduce it in the current session of Parliament itself.
The crucial Bill seeks to replace collegium with a broad-based Commission with representatives from the judiciary, executive and independent experts.The law Ministry has already sought the views of the political parties on the issue so that there is unanimity over the proposed legislation.
“The discussions with political parties are likely to be completed by next week. Once the discussions are complete, the modified Bill (JAC Bill) will be placed in the Cabinet and then in Parliament,” the sources said. Since the Parliament session is likely to extend till August 14, the Government has two weeks on hand to finish this task.
law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had met former CJIs, former Attorney Generals, top lawyers on Monday who agreed on the need to make judicial appointment process more transparent. A broad consensus was developed around creation of an Appointments Commission, but nobody favoured giving primacy to the executive, as it existed prior to 1993 when the Supreme Court introduced collegium, vesting judiciary with the right to appoint judges.