Union Law Minister writes to CJI, wants 'govt representatives' in Supreme Court collegium

The Centre has written a letter to Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud suggesting the inclusion of government representatives in the Supreme Court collegium that decides on judges' appointments. 

In this letter written by Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju to CJI, the former said that the representation of the government representatives in appointing the judges will infuse "transparency and public accountability". 

Reacting to the reports of the Union Law Minister's letter to CJI, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called the development "extremely dangerous" and said that there should be "no government interference" in judicial appointments.

'This is a follow-up action; Convenient politics is not advisable': Rijiju slams Kejriwal

Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju responded to Arvind Kejriwal's remark saying that the letter to the CJI is a "precise follow-up action" of the direction of the Supreme Court Constitution Bench "while striking down the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) Act". "The SC Constitution Bench had directed to restructure the MoP (Memorandum of Process) of the collegium system," Rijiju said in a tweet.

"The contents in the letter to hon'ble CJI are exactly in conformity with the observations and directions of the Supreme Court Constitution Bench. Convenient politics is not advisable, especially in the name of the Judiciary. The Constitution of India is supreme and nobody is above it," Rijiju tweeted.

It is pertinent to mention that in seeking to overturn the collegium system of appointing judges to the higher judiciary, the BJP government in the Centre had brought in the NJAC Act and a Constitution Amendment Act in 2015. The two laws were struck down by the Supreme Court, thus reviving the collegium system. However, the apex court also noted that all was not well even with the collegium system and that improvement was needed in the more than two-decades-long system of judicial appointment.