Parties support Judicial Appointment bill

The government is likely to introduce the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill in Parliament this week after incorporating some suggestions made by the political parties. A draft for the Cabinet's consideration would be moved in a couple of days, a senior law ministry official said.

Updated on: Aug 10, 2014, 21:33:02 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The government is likely to introduce the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill in Parliament this week after incorporating some suggestions made by the political
parties. A draft for the Cabinet's consideration would be moved in a couple of days, a senior law ministry official said.

Most of the parties are supportive of having a commission for appointments in higher judiciary and have asked the government to stick with the recommendation of the standing committee.

The committee had suggested that the commission should be a seven member body headed by the Chief Justice of India and having two senior most judges of the Supreme Court as members. It also wanted that apart from the law minister three eminent citizens should also be members to provide a balance in the appointment process.

The government had suggested a six member panel with two citizen as members in place of three as recommended by the committee. Sources said this was done in a bid to prevent stiff opposition from the Supreme Court on replacing the existing system of collegium --- a committee of judges recommending appointment --- with a commission having an outside oversight.

The Congress, which had earlier introduced the judicial appointment commission bill in Rajya Sabha, wants the government to retain most of the provisions of the original bill and would decide on its action only after it sees the final print. "Let them bring the bill to the Parliament," was reaction of a Congress leader when asked about the proposed bill.

Like the Congress, the Left parties, its bitter rival in West Bengal the Trinamool Congress and Janata Dal (United) are also supported of reforming the appointments in the judiciary but will take call only after seeing the bill.

Most of the parties have responded in positive to Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad letter written on July 17 seeking support for the two bills --- Judicial Appointment Commission and Judicial Standards and Accountability --- for better transparency and reforms. "These legislative proposals are seminal in nature and will have far reaching consequences on the administration of justice in the country," the letter read.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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