Collegium system best, here to stay: Former CJI UU Lalit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 13

Amid criticism of the Collegium system of appointing judges, former CJI UU Lalit on Sunday defended it as “perfect” and said it was here to stay.

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had recently criticised the Collegium system for being opaque

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“According to me, it (Collegium system) is perfect the way it stands today... it has proved to have worked effectively,” Justice Lalit, who demitted office as the 49th CJI on November 8, said.

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Talking to the media at his residence this evening, he, however, said Parliament was free to enact a law like the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) once again, if it wished to.

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had recently criticised the Collegium system for being opaque. “No system can be 100 per cent perfect. However, we need to strive for a better system. When Parliament passed the NJAC in 2015, the Supreme Court struck it down. They (SC) should have told us which system would be better,” Rijiju had said. Terming the Law Minister’s comments his “personal opinion”, Justice Lalit asserted, “The Collegium system has got the approval of a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court.”

Noting that reintroducing the NJAC would require a constitutional amendment and was the prerogative of the government, Justice Lalit said so long as that did not happen, the judiciary had to follow the norms for judicial appointment set by the Supreme Court in its Constitution Bench verdicts.

The former CJI’s comments came two days after a Bench led by Justice SK Kaul took serious objection to the Centre sitting over the recommendations made by the Collegium for judicial appointments. Justice Lalit also disapproved of former CJI Ranjan Gogoi accepting nomination to the Rajya Sabha. “...I think the position as a nominee member of the Rajya Sabha is not the correct idea or as a Governor of a state is again not a correct idea,” Justice Lalit told a TV channel.

However, he said he would not mind taking over as the National Human Rights Commission Chairman, Lokpal or Law Commission Chairman.

He brushed aside the criticism over the listing of state of Maharashtra’s appeal against the acquittal of GN Saibaba — accused of Maoist links — before the Supreme Court on October 15 (Saturday), saying there was nothing unusual about it.

The former CJI also defended the top court’s verdict setting aside the death sentence awarded to three accused for the gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman in Delhi’s Chhawla area 10 years ago.

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