Lawmakers critical of judiciary in RS

Lawmakers were today critical of the judiciary with members in Rajya Sabha saying judges should not be allowed to appoint themselves and pressed the government to implement the National Judicial Accountability Commission (NJAC) law.
Members, while participating in a debate on 'Working of the Ministry of Law and Justice', felt that the judiciary was "interfering" with the Legislative even as some flagged the issue of corruption in the judiciary and expressed concern over pile up of cases in various courts in the country.
Initiating the debate, E M Sudarsana Natchiappan (Cong) said since the NDA government has got such a massive majority after 30 years, they should restore the pre-1993 status on judicial appointments when government used to appoint judges.

"Can we give the power to appoint judges to judges themselves? Can the judges appoint brothers, sisters and their grand children," he questioned, adding that in contrast the Legislative and the Executive have no such rights.
"Government should not shy away from taking a decision (on implementation of NJAC)... Parliament is supreme within the Constitution," he said.
Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) expressed concern over the Judiciary directing Executive on various issues during the last 15 years.

Welcoming the NJAC, he said, while judges are being appointed by the Executive in rest of the world, in India, they are appointed by the Judiciary.

Citing the case of Allahabad High Court, where he claimed huge vacancies of judges were not filled, he said government could not even fill the vacancies.
Naresh Agrawal (SP) said, "today there is a situation of confrontation between the apex court and us."
Shantaram Naik (Cong) said courts are "interfering" in the functioning of Legislative.
"Day in and day out our powers are being snatched by the Judiciary. Courts are enacting legislation in the guise of interpretations. A day will come when courts will give orders not to raise calling attention motion," he said.
"There have been off the cuff remarks by the Judiciary. In one case they said what was the Parliament doing and whether Parliament was sleeping," Naik noted.