legal luminary Ram Jethmalani on Thursday strongly objected the Constitution Amendment Bill that paves for setting up a Judicial Appointments Commission to replace the collegium system of judges appointment terming it as “evil” that will “dig grave of the Constitution.”
Jethmalani, who was the lone voice of dissent on the Bill that found wide support from all parties in the Rajya Sabha, said that the Bill is unconstitutional and would be set aside by the Supreme Court for altering the basic structure of the Constitution. “This is a useless piece of legislation,” he said adding that Parliament cannot tinker with the Constitution.
The expelled BJP leader said that he was among the founder of collegium system which derived its base from article 50 of the Constitution which strives to keep judiciary separate from executive. He said that collegium system is required for independence of judiciary so that it could address people grievances against executive and bureaucracy. He said that Bill is not intended to improve the judicial character, but aimed to compromises the supremacy of the judiciary.
He also raised the objection to the Government bringing two Bills — one Constitution Amendment Bill enabling setting up the Constitution and other a Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2013 which will be passed by a simple majority and the Government could amend it at any point of time.