Sir — The President has given assent to the constitutional amendment Bill on the selection of judges to the Supreme Court and the higher courts. For decades, we had the judiciary having the final say in appointing judges, but now the executive would have the upper hand. Strangely, though, the change has come about when both these august institutions had been losing as much sheen as the other. Whether the amendment will be challenged in the courts, remains to be seen.
The US Supreme Court appointments are being done by the executive for ages now. Our problems rest in the wide spectrum of cases handled by the apex court, as against the preponderance of constitutional issues handled in the US apex court. That being the case, we would, over time, be necessarily swinging between processes of judicial selection.