Justice Lokur, who was speaking at a function organised by a news portal said that the Collegium in its existing form is still the best system.
Former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan Bhimrao Lokur on Wednesday openly admitted that he was disappointed with the Chief Justice of India (CJI) for withholding from public glare the resolution of the Collegium that met on December 12.
As is the practice followed in the Supreme Court where Collegium decisions are put up on the website for all to see, Justice Lokur, while speaking at a public event, said, "There was a meeting that took place on December 12, 2018. This is reflected in the decision of the next Collegium that met on January 10. Once a resolution is passed by the Collegium, I would expect it is put out on the website. It does disappoints me when the decision taken by Collegium (of December 12) is not put out on SC website."
This was the last collegium meeting Justice Lokur attended prior to his retirement on December 30. However, the former judge did not comment on the decision to change the recommendation suggesting that he was not aware of the additional material discussed in the January 10 meeting.
While making his angst known, Justice Lokur, who was speaking at a function organised by a news portal said that the Collegium in its existing form is still the best system. However, sometimes there are problems and so the system needs to be tweaked.
It was with this intention, he added, when the concept of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was struck down, public opinion was sought and based on responses received, changes were proposed in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP).
Breaking his silence on how the amended MoP fails to address accountability and transparency in dealing with complaints against judges, Justice Lokur said, "The MoP lays down the age, income of persons to be recommended as judges but not the mechanism as to who should be consulted on complaints against a judge being considered."
Another flaw, according to him, existed in timelines to deal with recommendations. For instance, he said, "If High Court collegium makes a recommendation and the state government does not respond for six weeks, in such a scenario the Union Law Ministry can proceed on the assumption that state has no objection. But suppose Law Ministry does not make that assumption, will files remain pending with it forever. We have seen how the Government sat on the file of Justice KM Joseph (now a SC judge) for months together. There is need to bring about change but the amended MoP is silent on many of these things."
Justice Lokur, who was part of the press conference by four sitting SC judges held on January 12, 2018, felt that by going to the media, they achieved a certain degree of openness in the allotment of matters. He said, judges should not be hermits sitting in ivory towers as they need to interact with people around them. But he cautioned that judges must stay out of "political thicket" and step back from crossing the line set for them by the Constitution.
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