Bill to scrap collegium system may come up in RS tomorrow

A bill to scrap the collegium system of appointing judges to the Supreme Court and high courts is likely to be introduced in the Rajya Sabha tomorrow.
The Constitutional amendment bill seeks to replace the collegium system with a Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) to give the Executive a say in appointing members to the higher judiciary.
Under the proposal, the government seeks to set up a panel headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to appoint and transfer senior judges.
The other members of the proposed commission would be two judges of the Supreme Court, the Law Minister, two eminent persons as members and Secretary (Justice) in the Law Ministry as Member Secretary.

The Law Ministry has been pushing the proposal, which will require a Constitutional amendment, but some sections in the government as well as judiciary had reservations over its certain provisions.
The Union Cabinet had last week cleared the proposal.

The Leader of the Opposition of either House of Parliament will be part of a committee to be set up to nominate two eminent persons to the JAC. The committee will also have the CJI and the Prime Minister as other members.
The move to set up JAC would entail amendments to Articles 124, 217, 222 and 231 of the Constitution and insertion of Article 124 A.

The views of the governors, chief ministers and respective chief justices of the 24 high courts will be elicited in writing for appointment of judges as per the procedure which could be determined by the JAC.
Justifying the move to scrap the collegium system, the Law Ministry said, "The need for this proposal arises primarily because the present system of appointment of judges in the country is unprecedented as in no other country in the world, does the judiciary makes appointments for itself.