Aurangabad. Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha on Sunday expressed hope that the BJP-led NDA, after returning to power, will try to end the “undemocratic” collegium system of appointment of judges in the Supreme Court and high courts. “There are many flaws in the collegium system. It is undemocratic. It has closed the doors for Dalits, OBCs and even the poor from upper castes to become judges in the higher judiciary,” Kushwaha, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate from Karakat Lok Sabha constituency, claimed while addressing an election rally in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Kushwaha, the head of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, which is part of the NDA, said, “If we look at the composition of the benches in the Supreme Court and the High Court, it is dominated by members of a few hundred families. This is why this anomalous system has been criticized by the current President and his predecessor.”
“For some reason, it was struck down by the Supreme Court,” Kushwaha, who was minister of state for human resource development in the first term of the Narendra Modi government, said, recalling the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, which was introduced in 2014.
Questioning RJD president Lalu Prasad’s “social justice”, Kushwaha claimed, “He was a Union minister and an important ally in the Congress-led UPA government, but he never raised his voice against the collegium system.”
He said that the NDA government showed courage to intervene in the complicated issue of the collegium system and the NDA will continue to make efforts in this direction. Kushwaha has been a supporter of reservation in the higher judiciary and despite changing allies several times, he has maintained his stand on this controversial issue.
Kushwaha said, “I had supported the bill. If anyone can show any proof that I had opposed it, I will retire from politics.” Voting is to be held in Karakat on June 1 and Kushwaha is pitted against Raja Ram of CPI (ML) and Bhojpuri actor Pawan Singh, who is contesting as an independent candidate.
Tags: Lok Sabha Election 2024, Lok Sabha Elections, Supreme Court, Upendra Kushwaha
FIRST PUBLISHED : May 26, 2024, 19:50 IST