Collegium system must not be derailed, says Supreme Court

New Delhi, December 2

The Supreme Court said on Friday the collegium system should not be derailed on the basis of statements of “some busybody”, asserting that the top court was one of the most transparent institutions.

Amid divisions within the judiciary and its festering dispute with the government over the system under which existing judges appoint judges to constitutional courts, it said it did not want to comment on what a few former apex court judges, who were once members of the Collegium, were now saying about the mechanism.

A Bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said, “Nowadays, it has become a fashion to comment on earlier decisions (of the Collegium) made when they (former judges) were part of the Collegium… Let the existing Collegium system not be derailed.” The court was hearing a petition by RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj against the Delhi High Court order dismissing her plea seeking the agenda of the Collegium’s meeting held on December 12, 2018, when certain decisions were purportedly taken on the elevation of some judges to the apex court.