The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday strongly opposed a private member’s bill for a National Judicial Commission, introduced in the Rajya Sabha, calling it a “constitutional impossibility”.
AAP member Raghav Chadha registered the party’s objection to the introduction of the National Judicial Commision Bill, 2022, by CPI-M’s Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya during Private Members’ Business in the upper house. The bill aims to regulate the procedure to be followed by the National Judicial Commission for recommending persons for appointment judges of the higher judiciary.
“Judiciary is the only independent institution left in the country; it will be harmful to allow political influence over it. The Central government should in no manner be allowed to control the appointment of judiciary,” Chadha said.
Opposing the Bill, he said: “The concept of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) came thrice in the Supreme Court in 1993, 1998, and 2016. Every time, the Supreme Court prioritised the independence of the judiciary and rejected the idea of NJAC. I am here to oppose this bill.”
“I think we are attempting to do a constitutional impossibility. The current collegium system of appointment of judges is functioning smoothly. There could be a scope of improvement, which could be explored after discussions and dialogue with the judiciary.
“We should not give any handle to the Central government that they could interfere with the judiciary and appointment of judges,” he added.
Speaking to the media, the AAP leader said that the existing procedure of appointment of judges through collegium system in the past 30 years has done great. Though there could be a scope of improvement, but, to discard it and politically interfere in the appointment of judges should not happen at all. Judicial independence is part of the basic structure of our constitution, he stressed.
