Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has tweeted a video interview conducted LawStreet Bharat (Hindi Channel of LawStreet Journal) of former Delhi High Court judge Justice R S Sodhi in support of "sane" views questioning the Collegium system for appointment of judges in the Supreme Court and the High Courts.
The Minister tweeted the video, saying, "Voice of a Judge...
Real beauty of Indian Democracy is- it's success. People rule themselves through their representatives. Elected representatives represent the interests of the People & make laws. Our Judiciary is independent and our Constitution is Supreme."
The tweet by the Minister comes at a time when the government had repeatedly questioned the Collegium system for appointment of judges. The Minister, himself, had said nowhere in the world, judges appointed themselves.
In the interview of Justice Sodhi conducted by LawStreet Bharat, the former judge, "the Supreme Court has, for the first time, hijacked the Constitution. It said we will appoint the judges and the government will have no role in this."
"High Courts are not subservient to the Supreme Court (but after the Collegium system) High Court judges start looking at the Supreme Court and become subservient," Justice Sodhi had said.
In support of Justice Sodhi's views, the Minister said, "Actually majority of the people have similar sane views. It's only those people who disregard the provisions of the Constitution and mandate of the people think that they are above the Constitution of India."
"All the three organs of our State i.e Legislature, Executive and Judiciary must work together in the larger interest of the nation," he added.
On January 6, Rijiju had written to Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud suggesting to include government's representative in the process for picking up judges.
The letter had sought inclusion of a central government's nominee in search-cum-evaluation committee, as part of the Memorandum of Procedure to be formulated in terms of the Supreme Court's judgement in the National Judicial Appointment Commission Act case.
"This is precise follow-up action of the direction of Supreme Court Constitution Bench while striking down the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) Act. The SC Constitution bench had directed to restructure the MoP of the Collegium system," Rijiju said in a tweet.
LawStreet Bharat has consistently been raising legal issues, highlighting different points of views for benefit of the general public.
