Judges cannot be appointed sitting in glass houses…’ Retired Justice SK Kaul said on collegium
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, who recently retired from the Supreme Court, had a special conversation with ‘Aaj Tak’ and said that governments have been controlling the investigating agencies since the beginning. Justice Kaul, who retired as a Supreme Court judge on December 25, Said that after retirement, he will not take any post from the government. He said that now like a common citizen, he will spend time with his family, grandchildren in Delhi and his ancestral home in Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir and will also fulfill his hobbies. Which he could not do in the last twenty-two and a half years as a judge.
Government wants a bigger role
Talking about the tussle between the judiciary and the executive, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said that the present government definitely wants to play a bigger role. In response to the question whether there has been any conflict with the present government? Justice Kaul said, ‘They definitely want to play a bigger role, they feel they are entitled to play a bigger role because they have been elected with a bigger mandate.’
He said that whenever there have been strong governments, there has been more tussle. He said that whenever there has been a coalition government, the judiciary has been a little ahead, whenever there have been strong governments, there has been more work to push it back. The government has made judicial appointments. Wants to play a bigger role.
Defended the collegium
Talking about the system of appointment of judges, Justice Kaul said that the government wants to play a bigger role, they feel that they also have a role because they are elected representatives. Talking about both the NJAC and the collegium system of appointment of judges, Justice Kaul said that whatever system is in place, it should be operated. He said, ‘If the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was in vogue, we would have operated the NJAC. The law of the land is determined by the Supreme Court as the final arbiter. If this is a law then appointments will have to go through it, I have differences of opinion with the government on this issue.
Talking about the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), which was set up to appoint judges, which was struck down by the Supreme Court, Justice Kaul said he believed that the NJAC should be changed keeping in mind the biggest concerns. Could have been done, so that there is no irregularity in the appointment process. He said that governments also used to appoint judges on the advice of CJI, then the collegium system came, after which NJAC was brought which was rejected in the Supreme Court. I think the National Judicial Appointments Commission should also have been tried. There was scope for some improvement in it. The current system is working as efficiently as it can.
Justice Kaul said that there has certainly been a feeling among the political class and the government that judges appoint judges and hence their role has been compromised.
Judges cannot be appointed like this
Collegium system not transparent? Responding to this criticism, Justice Kaul said, ‘We cannot appoint judges sitting in a glass house.’ He said that there is a process for this which includes consultation with all the bar judges, consultation with IB, meeting with the collegium, collecting the names etc. He said the system has worked and he has no complaints.
He said Tamil Nadu had recommended 60 names and 46 were appointed as judges of that court. Apart from this, out of total 16 recommendations of Punjab and Haryana HC, 14 names were appointed. However, he also said that, with time, he found that it was taking too much time and the solution could not be found. On criticism of the Collegium for promoting ‘own’, Justice Kaul said there is no bar on considering the name of a judge’s son for appointment. However, he put forward a simple test, according to which if a candidate is close to a judge, he has to be 10% better than others.
