The Government is all set to suggest the Supreme Court to make the collegium system of appointing judges more transparent in the manner by which reasons can be known for selecting or rejecting a candidate as judge of the High Court or apex court.
Carrying this suggestion on behalf of the Centre will be Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi before a Bench of Justices JS Khehar, J Chelameswar, Madan B lokur, Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Goel. The five-judge Constitution Bench, after it had struck down the law on National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) as unconstitutional by a 4:1 majority verdict on October 16, had decided to convene a sitting to consider changes to the existing collegium system.
The bench had invited suggestions from all corners to help it improve the present system of judges’ appointment. As the Centre’s response will be most sought after, the Union law Minister held an extensive meeting with the law officers in order to finalize the concrete proposals to be handed to the bench on Tuesday.
According to a report, the Centre is keen to have a committee of eminent persons to aid the collegium in order to scrutinize candidates before their names can be finalized by the collegiums. But the most crucial suggestion will be to make public the reasons for appointing or rejecting a name in the consideration zone. This factor was one of the chief reasons why the collegium came under attack. However, it is not known whether all aspects of selection criteria should be put under the domain of the Right to Information Act. As the collegium already follows a Memorandum of Procedure framed by the Centre for appointing judges, suitable changes have been recommended in it as regards the criteria for selection.