New Delhi:
Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia today cautioned the government to be careful while drafting laws on judiciary. He also urged the government to take opinions of eminent jurists before drafting such laws.
"I request the government to ensure that accountability be balanced with judicial independence. The government may make laws to make the judges accountable. We are not afraid of that. The question is that in that process, constitutional tinkering should be done very carefully."
"We need to take opinions of eminent jurists who will give objective opinion...jurists coming from all sections...otherwise I am afraid that with the state of drafting of laws in our country today, we will be taking a very big risk and we will be disturbing the constitutional balance, which we will be regretting for all times to come," Justice Kapadia said while addressing a gathering on the occasion of Independence Day today.
"Therefore I request the honorable Law Minister that be it a collegium system, be it Accountability Bill or whatever laws you bring, please take the opinion of eminent jurists," he added.
The CJI also had a word of caution for his fellow judges and advised them not to disturb the balance between Parliament, Executive and Judiciary. "We sometimes in our anxiety to do justice have disturbed constitutional balance between three branches of governance. I find balance is getting disturbed by judgments. Judges should be careful while drafting judgments. Parliament has its own right, similarly Executive. Under the Constitution, very fine checks and balances are there which need to be respected. Each participants (Parliament, Executive and Judiciary) under the Constitution is duty-bound not to disturb each the other, he said.