Despite opposition from the Bharatiya Janata Party the Uttar Pradesh State Assembly ratified the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2014 with an amendment that state Chief Minister, leader of the Opposition in the assembly and chief justice of the High Court should be included in the Commission that will select Judges for High Court.
This ratification with a rider means that if 15 states do not approve the ratification of the said Bill the 121 Amendment has to be passed by the lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha once again.
According to the original bill the Commission comprises Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the leader of the single largest party in the lok Sabha (in the absence of leader of Opposition) and two eminent people will select Judges for the Supreme Court and High Court.
The ruling Samajwadi Party moved the resolution saying that for the appointment of Judges of the High Court a Commission comprising Chief Minister of the said , leader of Opposition in the state assembly and Chief Justice of High Court should select the names and sent the same to the Centre for approval.
The Congress and Bahujan Samaj party supported SP’s amendment. BJP opposed the amendment saying SP, and BSP leaders in the Parliament have welcomed the Bill. “Opposition by SP and BSP in Vidhan Sabha shows that party leaders here think in tangent to what their national leaders think,” Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal said.
Ambika Chaudhury (SP) pilot ed the resolution in the assembly saying that when Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition or the leader of the largest opposition party could form the committee to select judges for Supreme Court why a committee comprising CM, leader of the opposition and Chief Justice of high Court cannot select judges for High Court under the federal system.
“The Samajwadi Party is against Collegium system of selection of selection of judges and want a change in the system. Our party is in favour of the Bill but want state’s say in selection of High Court judges,” he said here on Wednesday.
“We will also speak to other states to carry out similar amendments in the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2014 so that all the states have say in selection of judges in their respective High Courts,” Chaudhry said.
The UP minister admitted that on the demand of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Centre has included that one of the eminent member in the commission would be either from SC/ST, Backward, Minority or woman. Radha Moham Das Agarwal (BJP) opposed the amendment saying that any amendment would require the Bill to be again passed by the Parliament. “Four states including CPI (M) ruled Tripura has ratified the Bill
which shows that the amendment was in the right direction,” he said.
Three other states that had ratified the Bill are BJP ruled Gujarat, Rajasthan and Goa.
BJP legislature Party leader leader Suresh Kumar Khanna questioned why the SP was raising such issue when its leaders have no objection to any format of the Bill.
The proposed legislation seeks to scrap the collegium system of appointing judges and in its place set up a commission for the same. The Bill proposes that the Chief Justice of India will head a six-member National Judicial Appointments Commission, other members of which would be the law minister, two senior Supreme Court judges and
two eminent people.
A collegium comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the leader of the single largest party in the lok Sabha will select the two eminent people.
For implementation of the proposed Bill, there is a need for more than 50 per cent support by the state assemblies due to which it has been sent to all the states for ratification. The Congress supported the Bill in lok Sabha after the government dropped the word ‘unanimous’ from a clause that said all members of the commission have to agree to a judge’s appointment if there are objections and the President sends back the same name for reconsideration.