Supreme Court Judges - Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Prafulla Panth and Justice UU Lalith summoning Ex SC Judge Justice Markandeya Katzu for his comments on SC Judgement and Katzu's refusal to appear in court citing Article 124(7) speaks volumes about quality of our Supreme Court judgments and its Judges who are appointed by 'Judges selects Judges' regime by the Collegium without any process of selection based on merit and providing opportunity to all eligible candidates for the post of Judges in HC and SC. The SC Collegium hand picks judges and advocates based on informal recommendations of the members of the Collegium without any criterion for further processing by Ministry of Law. Needless to say many meritorious candidates were not even considered for the posts of HC & SC judges. Overtime SC & HC have become some thing like 'Secunderabad Club' with members passing on their membership to their heirs or friends only.
The Collegium came into existence based on a SC judgement of 1992 rather than by an act of parliament which is in gross violation of constitution. The recent 'National Judicial Appointments Commission Act' was struck down by SC based of some technicalities rather than any merits only to safeguard their usurped power to appoint judges thus deviating from their fundamental responsibility of dispensing justice and defending constitution.
In this connection it is worthwhile to read the remarks '50% of Higher Judiciary Corrupt - Justice Markandeya Katzu (Retd)' a year ago. In his remarks he was kind enough to limit corruption up to 50%. Corruption in its true meaning not only include making illicit money but also doling out favors to friends and relatives and delivering whimsical judgments etc and the the percentage would go up to 90%.
We need judges like Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha and Justice Bakhtawar Lentin etc.
In our constitution every body is answerable to some body in public domain except Supreme Court Judges who are answerable to themselves only. Needless to say we are observing autocratic tendencies of these judges and/or pro-government inclination tendencies only to get post retirement plum postings especially by the judges whose term is nearing its end.
In this scenario, nation's interests are unsafe in the hands of these Judges and to overcome we must formulate and enforce 'judicial reforms' urgently.
"Nearly all men can stand adversity,
but if you want to test a man's character, give him power" ... Abraham Lincoln
My View:
The three SC Judges who have issued summons to Katzu in violation of constitution indicated their poor understanding of simple provisions of the constitution and must resign for their unfitness to be SC Judges.
In a large democracy like India, transparency in public domain is essential. Opaque systems like collegium, even if they are producing desired results, are absolutely unacceptable. It is surprising to note how this opaque system which is anti-constitutional and without approval of parliament has come into existence and continuing unabated for over a quarter century. Supreme Court, the defender of constitution, adopting this kind of illegal systems is not only unacceptable but also unpardonable. The need of the hour is to dismantle this system and replace with an organisation like UPSC urgently. This is a classic case of interpreting the provisions of constitution against its spirit and misusing the trust & authority vested in the apex court.
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