Law Minister H R Bhardwaj today spelt out a series of policy rollbacks the new government proposes to make on issues ranging from judicial accountability to economic reforms. The only issue on which Bhardwaj expressed agreement with his predecessor Arun Jaitley was on the Bill introduced to liberalise the contempt law. He said it was time to make truth a defence in a contempt of court case. However, the proposals he announced today suggest that the Congress party intends to stick by most of the positions it took as Opposition. • No disinvestment without Parliament approval: This means that the Government will withdraw the plea made last year by then Attorney General Soli Sorabjee that the Supreme Court’s controversial judgement in the BPCL/HPCL case required ‘‘serious reconsideration’’. Said Bhardwaj: ‘‘Parliament should have been taken into confidence as PSUs have been created from public money.’’ • No National Judicial Commission: Referring to the National Judicial Commission Bill introduced last year by Jaitley, Bhardwaj said it would ‘‘weaken’’ the judiciary as it allowed the Law Minister to have a say in transferring or otherwise disciplining judges. Bhardwaj said he would rather persist with the present system of leaving judicial appointments and transfers to a collegium of senior judges. He said he was also open to the idea, expressed by recently retired Chief Justice of India V N Khare, that the existing in-house mechanism for judicial accountability be given more powers through a law. But he added that the Law Ministry has so far not received any proposal from the judiciary in this regard. ‘‘If they want a legislation giving more powers to the Chief Justice to discipline judges, they have to give it in writing and we will do the needful.’’ • The Competition Commission will be headed only by retired judges. Lambasting the Vajpayee government for appointing a bureaucrat as chairman of the Competition Commission, Bhardwaj asked: ‘‘Has it ever happened that a bureaucrat is made to head a quasi-judicial body whose awards are to be enforced by the high court?’’ The law piloted by Jaitley permits even non-judicial persons to head the Competition Commission as the job calls for highly specialised and technical knowledge of the market. But Bhardwaj sees that as a ‘‘folly’’ and laments that ‘‘a very urgent law’’ meant to replace the MRTPC Act has been held up on account of it. Bhardwaj also blamed the NDA government for delays in filling up vacancies in higher judiciary. He said even if there was any delay on the party of the judiciary to send recommendations on time, the Law Minister does not have any ‘‘legitimate excuse’’ to throw up his hands. Criticising the Law Ministry for not taking ‘‘proper follow-up action’’, Bhardwaj said: ‘‘It is open to the Law Minister to meet the Chief Justice concerned, draw his attention to the vacancy position and repeatedly request him to recommend names.’’
