Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad
How judges are promoted or transferred in India is set to change dramatically - the opposition Congress has decided to support the government's proposal, which means that the plan should have no trouble clearing both houses of Parliament. While the ruling BJP and its allies have a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha, they need the backing of the Congress in the Rjya Sabha.
Judges are currently appointed by a collegium of the Supreme Court's top five judges, headed by the Chief Justice of India.
The Congress said this morning that it will back the new proposal which asks for judges to be appointed by a committee of six members: the Chief Justice of India, the Law Minister, two senior Supreme Court judges, and two eminent personalities, one of whom must be a woman or a member of a Scheduled Caste or Tribe.
"This bill has 2-3 major changes, some of them impinge on judicial independence or perhaps disturb the balance. We will suggest changes, we may or may not have the numbers, but we will support the bill subject to constructive changes," Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.
If two members of the committee veto a candidate, the person has to be dropped from consideration - a feature that some experts object to, alleging that it allows for bias.
The current Parliament session is meant to end on Thursday, but the government is keen to extend it to allow for a discussion and vote on the new proposal for judges along with other pending legislation.
(Read) Most parties have indicated they will agree.
The plan to rework how judges are chosen comes as allegations of corruption have besmirched the judiciary. Yesterday, the Chief Justice of India, RM Lodha, defended the existing collegium system. "If you say the collegium has failed, then everybody has failed. All the judges today were appointed by the collegium," he said.
(Rift Between Centre, Supreme Court Over Justice Manjunath's Transfer)The Congress' cooperation will be welcomed by the government as a break from recent tradition. The Congress blocked the government's attempt to introduce a key reform - the Insurance Bill - in this session of Parliament.