Legal Correspondent
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Bar Association and the Delhi High Court Bar Association have urged the Centre to take immediate steps to bring in a constitutional amendment to replace the collegium system with a properly constituted National Judicial Commission for appointment of judges to higher judiciary.
In a statement, SCBA president M.N. Krishnamani and DHCBA president K.C. Mittal expressed concern over the recommendation made for the elevation of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran as Supreme Court judge. They said “this shows the utter failure of the collegium system introduced by the Supreme Court in 1993 in virtual judicial amendment of the Constitution, which was very unprecedented in human history, since it is not open to the court to amend the Constitution.”
(The Supreme Court collegium of judges headed by Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan is likely to meet later this week to consider the implications of the selection of Justice Dinakaran.)
The statement said some of the appointments made in the High Courts and now even the present selection of this judge to the Supreme Court showed that the collegium system was worse than the previous system of the Executive selecting the judges.
(The Hindu, 17 September 2009)
