On Sunday, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju supported the views of a retired High Court judge Justice RS Sodhi, who said that the Supreme Court “hijacked” the Constitution by choosing to appoint judges itself. The appointment of judges to the highest court has been a topic of contention between the government and the judiciary during the past few years.
In a recent interview with the LawStreet Bharat YouTube channel, retired High Court Justice discussed the Supreme Court’s Collegium system. “The Supreme Court has, for the first time, hijacked the Constitution. It said we will appoint the judges and that the government will have no role in this”, the retired judge said.
The Union Law Minister posted a clip from the interview from his Twitter account and said, “Voice of a Judge…
Real beauty of Indian Democracy is- it’s success. People rule themselves through their representatives.
Elected representatives represent the interests of the People & make laws. Our Judiciary is independent and our Constitution is Supreme.”
Voice of a Judge…
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) January 21, 2023
Real beauty of Indian Democracy is- it’s success. People rule themselves through their representatives.
Elected representatives represent the interests of the People & make laws. Our Judiciary is independent and our Constitution is Supreme. pic.twitter.com/PgSaqfZdDX
“Actually the majority of the people have similar sane views. It’s only those people who disregard the provisions of the Constitution and the mandate of the people think that they are above the Constitution of India,” the Minister added in a subsequent tweet.
Actually majority of the people have similar sane views. It's only those people who disregard the provisions of the Constitution and mandate of the people think that they are above the Constitution of India.
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) January 22, 2023
During the interview, Retired Justice Sodhi also remarked that the supreme court lacks the authority to create laws and that the Parliament has the authority to enact laws.
“Whether you can amend the Constitution? Only Parliament will amend Constitution. But here I feel the Supreme Court for the first time ‘hijacked’ the Constitution. After ‘hijacking’ they (SC) said that we will appoint (judges) ourselves and the government will have no role in it,” Justice Sodhi said in Hindi.
The Supreme Court and other high courts’ judicial appointments have become a major source of friction between the Executive and the Judiciary. While Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar questioned the Supreme Court for overturning the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act (NJAC) and an associated constitutional amendment, Rijiju characterised the collegium system for appointing judges as something alien to the Indian Constitution. Law Minister Rijiju had also written a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud proposing the representation of the central government on the body that chooses judges.
A statute approved by Parliament, which represents the will of the people, was “undone” by the Supreme Court, according to Rajya Sabha Chairman Dhankhar, and he further said that the world is not aware of any such incident.
