Rijiju’s resignation, names of judges approved
With this comes the news that the Central Government has approved the recommendation of the Collegium for the appointment of two judges in the Supreme Court. Two names were sent to the Central Government by the Supreme Court Collegium. These names were cleared by the Center within just 48 hours. On Friday, two judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Senior Advocate KV Vishwanathan took oath in the Supreme Court. Now political analysts are also seeing a connection between the resignation of Kiren Rijiju and the approval of the names of new judges. It is believed that this is Rijiju’s exit from the Law Ministry to resolve the tussle between the Center and the Judiciary. The approval of the names from the Center soon after Rijiju’s departure is also being considered as an indicator of the end of the conflict between the two.
I thank CJI DY Chandrachud, all the judges of the Supreme Court, all the Chief Justices of the High Courts, the lower judiciary and all the law officers for their support.
Kiren Rijiju tweets after stepping down from Law Ministry
Collegium was on the target of Rijiju
Kiren Rijiju had openly said that there is a lack of transparency and accountability in the collegium system. Rijiju also suggested the inclusion of government representatives in the collegium. Similarly, it was said to include the representatives of the concerned state government in the High Court collegium. Kiren Rijiju had termed the Supreme Court’s collegium system for appointing judges as opaque. During a conversation with a private channel, on the appointments of Supreme Court and High Court judges, Rijiju had said that he is not a government. He receives many complaints from the judges. I disagree with the process of appointment of Supreme Court and High Court judges. The High Court and the Supreme Court are not a government. Rijiju said that the Constitution of India is supreme and no one is above it. There was a lot of uproar over Union Minister Kiren Rijiju’s remark on Uncle Judge syndrome. Rijiju had said that due to the collegium, a situation has arisen where judges take the name of only those whom they know. Rijiju told that uncle judge means that if someone you know becomes a judge, then your path is cleared.