Political parties in the Rajya Sabha showed near unanimity on Tuesday while criticising the judiciary for pending cases and the uniquely Indian system of ‘judges appointing judges.’
The Congress, which initiated the calling attention motion on the subject also hit out at the government for what it described as a stalemate between the executive and the judiciary.
Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad began by explaining to the chair, that the government wrote to the Chief Justice of India last week in this regard but does not find it “prudent or desirable” to comment on the memorandum of procedure (MOP) because it is an ongoing process.
Congress lawmaker Vivek Tankha, who moved the motion, said, “Instead of reforming the system, there is stalemate.” He said the judiciary is burdened due to vacancies and pointed out against the sanctioned strength of 1,079 high court judges there are 458 vacancies.
“The wheel of justice has come to a standstill in India, because of the pending cases,” Congress’s Rajeev Shukla said and added that in the US the senate appoints its judges but the Indian Parliament didn’t do so. “We need to fix accountability.”
CPI(M)lawmaker CP Narayanan slammed the collegium system and said, “We don’t have any right to touch the judiciary in India. I think this anachronism has to be overcome. The backward sections have been kept away from the judiciary, because they have an insulated system. They brought in the collegium system 25 years back. This situation has to ended.”
{{/usCountry}}CPI(M)lawmaker CP Narayanan slammed the collegium system and said, “We don’t have any right to touch the judiciary in India. I think this anachronism has to be overcome. The backward sections have been kept away from the judiciary, because they have an insulated system. They brought in the collegium system 25 years back. This situation has to ended.”
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