Union government taking U-turn from its earlier stand to make appointment-process in higher judiciary public

The Union government surprisingly takes a U-turn on its earlier view of making appointment-process in higher judiciary public. Unfortunately reverse-stand of the government comes a few months after the luminaries from bar and bench apart from Union government agreed to make appointment-process in judiciary to be covered by RTI Act. It is significant that such matters were in open discussion including the one by the then Chief Justice of India on non-appointment of Gopal Subramaniam as Supreme Court judge.

Transparency in its process becomes even more important in the light of some prominent senior lawyers is said to have written against the transfer of a particular judge of Delhi High Court during the mass transfer of several judges from different High Courts perhaps as a sort of punishment for alleged charges of corruption, inefficiency, misconduct and nepotism.

A division-bench of the Apex Court, on 26.11.2010 had directed its registry to put the matter constituting a larger bench before Chief Justice of India to decide stay-order dated 24.11.2009 in SLP(C) numbers 32855 & 32856 of 2009 on various CIC-verdicts on aspects including the appointment-process in higher judiciary public. RTI response following a CIC-verdict revealed that several successive Chief Justices of India deferred constituting a larger bench passing comments like ‘Put it later’, ‘Put it after vacations’. It is high time that a decision is taken upon the long-pending matter; especially in view of regularly changing stands of the Union government on such important issues