Government is bound by the 1993 Judgment on Collegium System: Justice Rohinton Nariman

Former SC judge Justice Rohinton Nariman made strong remarks made by Centre against collegium system and delay in appointment of judges.

Nariman says, right or wrong Centre is bound by the 1993 judgment on collegium system.

He says govt sitting on recommendations for long is deadly for democracy

Justice Nariman was delivering the seventh Chief Justice MC Chagla Memorial Lecture on the subject ‘A tale of two Constitutions- India and the United States: the long and short of it all’.

ON LAW MINISTER KIREN RIJIJU’S STATEMENTS :

“We have heard a diatribe by Law Minister of the day against this process. Let me assure the Law Minister that there are two basic Constitutional fundamentals that he must know. One fundamental is, unlike the USA, a minimum of 5 unelected judges are trusted with the interpretation of the Constitution – Article 145(3). There is no equivalent in USA. So minimum 5 – what we call Constitution Bench- are trusted to interpreted the Constitution,”

“Once those five or more have interpreted the Constitution, it is your bounden duty as an “authority” under Article 144, to follow that judgment. You may criticise it. As a citizen, I may criticise it, no problem. But never forget, unlike me, who am a citizen today, you are an “authority” and as an “authority” you are bound by that judgment – right or wrong,”

HOPE SUPREME COURT HAS FIFTH JUDGES CASE AND TIES LOSE ENDS:

Nariman said he would strongly hope that Supreme Court has a Fifth Judges case – they constitute another bench of atleast 5 judges, in which this MoP, finally whatever lose ends are there – tie them up and finish it.

ON DELAY IN APPROVAL OF COLLEGIUM RECOMMENDATIONS:

‘And that Constitution Bench should, in my humble opinion, lay down once and for all that once a name is sent by the collegium to the government, if the government has nothing to say within a period, let’s say 30 days, then it would be taken that it has nothing to say…sitting on the names is deadly for the democracy in this country. Because what you are doing is you are waiting out a particular collegium to hope that another collegium changes its mind. And that happens all the time because you the government are continuous, you carry on for five years – atleast. But the collegiums that come, have a huge attrition rate. So this is one very important thing that a judgment of our court should lay down.”

ON BASIC STRUCTURE

Let’s remember when we speak about Basic Structure doctrine, it was used by minority judges first. It was sought to be undone twice and that was sought to be done over 40 years ago. So this is something that has come to stay. And speaking for myself, thank God it is.”