This refers to the report, “Supreme judicial crisis grips India” (January 13). In October 2015, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court presided over by Justice JS Khehar rejected the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act and stated categorically that the entanglement of the judges in this web of indebtedness towards the Government would open opportunities for executive overreach and political speculation in appointment to the top echelons of the judiciary. It held that even minimal participation of other organs of democracy would compromise judicial freedom and that the judges comprising the collegium system were incorruptible. On the contrary, such aversion to judicial reforms only led more credence to the allegation that judges of the Supreme Court sit in ivory towers. By striking down the NJAC Act, it not only displayed a condescending lack of faith in the Executive but also mocked civil society whose organic development, it obviously felt, had not as yet sufficiently evolved.
It is unfortunate that the institutional and professional concerns of four judges of the apex court resulted in an unprecedented judicial crisis caused by their infamous Press conference. The alleged misuse of administrative powers by the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra in assigning cases with far-reaching consequences selectively to junior judges and Benches of preference, questions the integrity of the institution itself.That the four senior judges had to bring out their internal differences in public underlines the need to strengthen independent mechanism for performance evaluation of the senior judiciary.