Collegium system alien to Constitution: Law Minister Kiren Rijiju
New Delhi, Nov 25: Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday launched a fresh attack on the mechanism to appoint Supreme Court and high court judges, saying the collegium system is "alien" to the Constitution.
The Supreme Court in its wisdom, through a court ruling, created collegium, he said noting that before 1991 all judges were appointed by the government.
Speaking at the Times Now Summit here, the minister said the Constitution of India is a "religious document" for everyone, especially the government.
"Anything which is alien to the Constitution merely because of the decision taken by the courts or some judges, how do you expect that the decision will be backed by the country," he asked.
Rijiju said the collegium system is alien to our Constitution. "You tell me under which provision the collegium system has been prescribed," he asked.
He explained that once the Supreme Court or a high court collegium sends recommendation, the government has to do due diligence.
Rijiju was responding to a question on government "sitting" on various Supreme Court collegium recommendations at a time when cases are piling up in courts.
But at the same time, the minister said the government of the day in 1991 and the present regime "very well respect the collegium system until or unless it is replaced by a better system".
He said he will not get into the debate of what that system should be. "That requires a better platform or a better situation."
With near unanimity, Parliament had passed the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act to overturn the collegium system. But the law was struck down by the Supreme Court.
Rijiju said as long as the collegium system is prevailing, he has to respect the system. "But if you expect the should merely sign (on) the name to be appointed as a judge just because it is recommended by the collegium, what is the role of government then? What does the word due diligence mean," he argued.
He said there are loopholes in the collegium system and "people are raising voices" that the system is not transparent. "Also thee is no accountability," he added.
He said one should never say government is sitting on files.
Then don't send the files to the government. You appoint yourself and you run the show ... system does not function. The Executive and the Judiciary will have to work together.
Before describing the collegium system alien to Constitution, Rijiju said every judge is not right. "But every judgment is correct and right because it is a judicial pronouncement. In a democratic process, nobody can disrespect the judiciary and nobody can disobey a court order," he said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
