Saturday, October 24, 2015

The SC judgement on NJAC

The Union Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitly , like any other citizen,  has a  right to air his views on the  recent Supreme Court judgement  . But his  comment ‘ tyranny of the unelected’  is  very much unbecoming of a politician of his stature   and the  constitutional position he holds . Does his comment  mean that people  should be acceptable to the ‘tyranny of the elected’ ? He conveniently forgot that he  himself was not directly elected by people!



The issue before the nation is  the independence, impartiality and competence of the judges at  high positions. The  judiciary and the judgement itself, has acknowledged the limitations of the current collegium system.  It needs reforms. A  ‘self correction’  was the  ideal solution. In the absence of that foresight , the parliament got involved. The  aim is to correct and perfect  a system, not that   the parliament or politicians to have a say  in the  appointment of the judges.  The  way  the politicians  are  reacting   gives an impression of ‘having lost an opportunity’ to control another important organ of the  state.That exactly is  one of the  apprehensions the judgement highlighted.



System  needs  a correction, one attempt was made. Its   short comings  are pointed out. The  judgement itself  commits to have a relook at the current system.  So  I feel, we need to be a bit more patient  , let the judiciary come  with its  solution  which  basically comes  down to transparency and accountability: "Reform that you may preserve"!

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