Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju writes to CJI Chandrachud over appointment of judges seeking representatives in evaluation panel

On Monday, the Centre wrote a letter to Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, proposing the inclusion of government representatives in the 25-year-old Supreme Court-created two-tiered system for the selection of judges for infusing openness and public accountability into the recruitment process of constitutional court justices. In the letter issued on January 16, the minister has proposed including representatives from the government in the “evaluation committee” for Supreme Court and High Court judges to dispel the notion that the process for selecting constitutional court judges is opaque. Former Supreme Court Justice Ruma Pal had stated in a speech made a decade ago, “Besides, institutional independence has also been compromised by growing sycophancy and ‘lobbying’ within the system. Earlier on November 25, 2022, the Law Minister at the Times Now Summit had asked, “What is the difference between consultation and concurrence?… If you expect the government to accept names recommended by the collegium, what is the government’s role?” Also on December 15, he had flagged concerns over the government’s limited role in appointing judges and stressed that it is at odds with the spirit of the Constitution.