Krishnaraj Rao for BeyondHeadlines
It is a lie that Government currently has no say in appointing judges, and therefore Judicial Appointments Commission Act is required for giving government a say. The fact is that government has been continually influencing the appointment of judges by the Collegium from the back door. Recommendations to the collegium are made through the back door by big-ticket lawyers who have access, like Manu Singhvi, Kapil Sibal and Arun Jaitley. These are the middlemen or puppet masters who make judicial appointments happen, by trading favours (land allotments, post-retirement appointments etc) with collegium judges. They are king-makers or “judge-makers” who approach the collegium on behalf of government, powerful business lobbies and political parties, to promote their favourite candidates.
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) will only enable the government to have additional control over judicial appointments — some extra bargaining leverage to make the collegium judges bend over, and let the government have their way with them.
Peep through the wall of secrecy behind which appointments and elevations have been happening in higher judiciary so far. Politics, lies, sex and money-trails lurk within. It is only thanks to expose’s by people like Justice Markandey Katju and Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that these ugly realities are now spilling out into public domain.
The public got a hint some years ago when a viral video showed a senior lady lawyer performing a sexual act on Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, in hopes of being recommended for judgeship. The matter was hushed up with money and influence — both political and judicial. Media did not dare to raise the Manu Singhvi issue again.
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Each and every judge carries the guilt of having been elevated to his current position by doing favours to government officials, politicians, senior counsels, etc. in exchange for recommendations to the collegium. His entire career is controlled by the collegium of judges at High Courts and Supreme Court. There are no rules, no benchmarks, no due process to be followed, and no reference to any institution created by any law; the words of the collegiums — which are illegal — are the only law.
How can such judges and chief justices safeguard our fundamental rights against encroachment by the powers-that-be?
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