Resist move to clip judiciary?s wings

ANY MOVE by the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre to bring the judiciary ?under the thumb? of the executive must be strongly resisted, said People?s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) national vice-president Ravi Kiran Jain here on Monday.

ANY MOVE by the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre to bring the judiciary ‘under the thumb’ of the executive must be strongly resisted, said People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) national vice-president Ravi Kiran Jain here on Monday.

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Jain, who is also a senior advocate at the Allahabad High Court, criticised Union Law Minister HR Bhardwaj’s statement in Parliament last week that the United Progressive Alliance Government was ready for a debate in order to evolve a consensus among all parties on a Constitutional amendment to create a National Judicial Commission, making the executive part of the process of appointment of High Court and Supreme Court judges.

The 1993 apex court ruling, Jain recalled, had eliminated the role of the executive in the matter of appointment of judges, and it had restored the judiciary’s earlier supremacy in this respect.

This, however, had since then not gone down well with those in politics, obviously because an independent judiciary had, by its impartial, objective and bold verdicts, often been causing discomfort to parties in power at the Centre who attempted to misuse and thwart the Constitution to serve their narrow political ends.

So, the parties, which came to power at the Centre had been covertly and overtly trying to undo the 1993 ruling in order to bring back the executive to the centre of the entire process for appointment of judges by creating a National Judicial Commission (NJC) through a Constitutional Amendment Bill, but soon thereafter the National Democratic Alliance lost power, he said.

Now, Bhardwaj seemed to be pursuing the same dubious objective towards creation of a National Judicial Commission through a Constitutional Amendment, said Jain.

He said any National Judicial Commission which made the executive a part of the process of appointment of judges would only lead to the politicisation of the judiciary, and eventually clip its wings, he said.

“If the judiciary is placed under the thumb of the executive in any manner, not only will its independence go, but also India itself may not survive as an independent nation,” Jain warned.