Opaqueness resulted in some worst appointments: Justice Katju

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, September 4

Justice J Chelameswar's demand for transparency in the proceedings of the Supreme Court collegium comprising five senior most SC judges, including him, gained momentum on Sunday with former SC judge Markandey Katju stating opaqueness had resulted in some of the worst appointments.

"Hats off to Justice Chalameshwar for his principled stand demanding recording of the minutes of the proceedings of the meetings of the collegium" for finalising the list of candidates to be appointed as judges of high courts or the Supreme Court, Justice Katju wrote on his blog.

"Some of the worst appointments in the SC and HCs have been made by the collegium system due to its lack of transparency and opaqueness, he said.

He said he fully knew how the collegium system really operated as he had been a Judge in HCs and SC for about 20 years.

In the United States, the Senate proceedings for considering the President's nominees for appointment as judges were televised live and the Senate closely questioned the candidates about their views, and even personal life.

"Ideally, that is the system which should be adopted in India too. But even if it is not adopted, minutes of the proceedings of the collegium meetings should be recorded, and disclosed to the public so that the people know what was said by each collegium member.

In a democracy people have a right to know," he said.

Three former Chief Justices of India KG Balakrishnan, P Sathasivam and RM Lodha have gone on record, stating that the collegium should hold a transparent discussion on the merits and demerits of every candidate and any name on which consensus could not be reached should be dropped. They also favoured recording the collegium proceedings.

Justice Chelameswar had written to CJI TS Thakur on September 1 announcing his decision to stay away from collegium meetings unless these were held in a transparent manner, giving an opportunity to every member to be heard and the views recorded.

CJI Thakur has expressed the hope that the collegium would sort out the issue.