The Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) on Saturday criticised the collegium system,proposed to be scrapped by Parliament,to appoint Supreme Court and High Court judges. The proposed Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) bill has been cleared by the Union Cabinet. The PUCL said though the proposed bill is a good move it is not efficient enough. Dr V Suresh,National General Secretary,PUCL said,The current system of appointment of judges is opaque and secretive,that raises a question on the credibility process of appointing judges. PUCL was founded by veteran leader Jayaprakash Narayan in 1976,and is aimed to work on issues relating to human rights. In a collegium system,three senior most judges of a high court choose who to elevate as a Judge. Nowadays,incompetent lawyers who have strong contacts with judges are getting preference to be appointed as judges, said Suresh. PUCL is of the view that appointment of judges should be based on evidence of merit. Stating a recent controversy Suresh said,In May 2013,out of 1,000 lawyers who were in the race for the post of judges in Punjab and Haryana High Court,eight names were recommended to the Supreme Court,which returned the list of recommendation back to the High Court for revision. Listing the pitfalls in the proposed JAC bill,Suresh said,The bill says that apart from the Chief Justice of India,two eminent persons would form the commission. We want to know who would be these two eminent persons. It also mentions that the Leader of Opposition in the House would be a member of the selection committee. The bill should be independent of any political or executive intervention. He added,names of all the lawyers considered for the appointment of judges,along with their evidence based merit should be made public.
