Lot Of Politics Inside Judiciary, Receive Complaints From Judges Against Collegium Recommendations: Kiren Rijiju
Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju said yesterday while speaking at an event that there is a lot of politics inside the judiciary and that he receives complaints even from colleague judges of judges whose names are recommended by the Collegium.
While explaining his earlier statement that judges should spend more time on delivering justice to people than on administrative process, Kiren Rijiju said, "There is lot of politics. The politics that we politicians do is nothing in front of the politics which happen inside judiciary. It is not visible. But it is intense politics there".
He said that because judges are part of the selection process, they have to involve in certain things which leads to "lots of politicking there". The Minister was speaking at the India Today Conclave.
When the Minister said that he feels that it will not be appropriate on his part to talk of individual cases of recommendations reiterated by the Supreme Court Collegium pending before the Centre, he was asked about the Collegium’s decision to put intelligence inputs about some candidates in the public domain.
The Minister responded by saying that he receives many comments about Collegium recommendations, including from other Judges, but the Government does not make them public. The Minister said that if a judge has written an adverse comment against any other judge, it is not appropriate to make it public.
"As a name comes to me for Supreme Court judge or a High Court judge, numerous complaints invariably come. Do I make it public? No", he said.
The Minister further said, "Right now I have some names with me and every name has lot of complaints, by the colleague Judges, by the public, by the association, by the bar. I don’t make it public. If a judge has written an adverse comment against any other judge, I am not supposed to make it public".
He said that it is a matter of probity in public life and discipline. He also said that he does not want to talk about the individual names and why their appointments are not taking place. "These are very sensitive matters", he said.
While commenting on the recent judgment of the Apex Court on the appointment of Election Commissioners, the Law Minister had said that the primary job of judges is to do judicial work and he asked who will carry forward the judicial work if judges sit on every important appointment. He had also said that some retired judges are part of an "anti-India gang". (read report)
Earlier, the Law Minister had said that making RAW's report public is a matter of grave concern and that it impact undercover operatives.