New Delhi: Amid the ongoing tussle between the Government and judiciary over the appointment of judges, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday sought to support the views of a retired high court judge who said the Supreme Court has ‘hijacked’ the Constitution by deciding to appoint judges itself.
Sharing a video clip of an interview of retired Delhi High Court judge RS Sodhi with LawStreet Bharat YouTube channel, on Twitter, Rijiju wrote, “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.”
“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 said in another tweet.
In the interview uploaded on November 23, Justice Sodhi can be heard saying, “High Courts are not subservient to the Supreme Court. High Courts are independent bodies of the respective states. Now, the Supreme Court is appointing the High Court judges and where do SC judges come from? High Courts. Hence, HC judges have now started looking towards Supreme Court all the time and become subservient (to the top court).”
Here is the clip of the interview
“Only Parliament will amend the Constitution. But here I feel the Supreme Court, for the first time, has ‘hijacked’ the Constitution. After ‘hijacking’ they (SC) said that they will appoint (judges) themselves and the government will have no role in it,” Justice Sodhi said in the interview in Hindi.
It is to be noted that the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the high courts has become a major issue of debate between the Government and the Judiciary.
While Union Minister Kiren Rijiju has described the collegium system to appoint judges as something “alien” to the Indian Constitution, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar questioned the apex court for striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act (NJAC) and a related constitution amendment.