Law Com chief for independent body for appointments to higher

Terming the present collegium system where judges appoint judges as "defective", Law Commission Chairman Justice A P Shah today batted for an independent body to make appointments to the higher judiciary.
He said the body as envisaged by both the previous UPA government and the NDA dispensation should have a majority of judges.
Justice Shah said while the body should be "recommendatory" in nature, its recommendations should be binding on the Executive.
He said the Executive should only overrule the recommendation in case the selected candidate fails on merits and the reasons for the rejection should be made known.
He said the bill introduced by the previous UPA government is inadequate and the proposed body to appoint judges to the Supreme Court and the high courts should have more judges than representatives from the government.

Justice Shah suggested that the proposed body should have representatives from the Bar as well as from the civil society.

In an interview to Karan Thapar on Headlines Today, he said since 50 to 80 judicial appointments are made, the panel should be full-time body with its own investigative wing to clear names.
Shah, it is learnt is likely to meet Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday to put forth the views of the Commission on the issue of judicial appointments.
A Constitutional Amendment Bill to set up the proposed commission has lapsed following the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha and an accompanying bill is pending in Rajya Sabha.

An earlier effort by the NDA-I government in 2003 to replace the collegium system met with no success. The then NDA government had introduced a Constitution amendment bill but Lok Sabha was dissolved when the bill was before a Standing Committee. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was the Law Minister then.
The parliamentary nod to the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill eluded the UPA dispensation despite its having agreed to demands by jurists and BJP to grant constitutional status to a proposed commission for appointment and transfer of judges to the higher judiciary to ensure that its composition cannot be altered through an ordinary legislation.