Lawmakers in Lok Sabha discussed the issue of judges appointing judges and said judiciary should be made accountable.
Members in Lok Sabha across the political spectrum today pitched for judicial accountability with a Congress member arguing that the people have every right to see that the judiciary is accountable to them and a Trinamool Congress (TMC) member saying the collegium system for appointment of judges by judges has "failed".
Lawmakers from the ruling BJP also voiced their concern using the opportunity of a discussion on the High Court and the Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill aimed at removing anomalies in pensionary benefits of high court judges elevated from the bar.
Their contentions came against the
backdrop of the apex court in October invalidating the 99th Constitutional Amendment and National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act unanimously passed by both Houses of Parliament.
Initiating the debate on the bill, SP Muddahanumegowda of the Congress urged the government to bring a judicial accountability bill. He said the "people have every right to see that judges are accountable to them," and added that parliamentarians are always asked to be accountable to the people.
Citing a huge backlog of cases in courts, he said over 371 posts of high court judges out of 1071 sanctioned posts across the country were vacant.
Kalyan Banerjee of TMC was vigorous in his criticism of the collegium system through which the judiciary appoints judges to the high courts and the Supreme Court.
"Collegium system has failed," he said, adding that whoever the judges in the collegium "like are called good-good and the others are bad-bad".
He cited the case of former Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya who was not appointed a Supreme Court judge and said good lawyers did not want to join as high court judges due to the collegium system.
Satyapal Singh of BJP spoke on similar lines and demanded judicial accountability. "If anybody enjoys complete freedom, it is the judges, however wrong their decisions may be," he said.
Referring to the Supreme Court's decision to hear on
Yakub Memon's mercy plea late at night, he said terrorist like Memon had such a hearing but poor people do not get such opportunity.
BJP, TMC and Congress members supported the Bill, but the discussion remained inconclusive.
The Bill, among other things, seeks to simplify some of the provisions relating to determination of leave allowances of judges of High Courts and the apex court.