Kiren Rijiju uses retd judge’s voice to back govt stand

Kiren Rijiju

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday sought to support the views of a retired high court judge, who said the Supreme Court "hijacked" the Constitution by deciding to appoint judges itself.

Rijiju shared the video of an interview of Justice R S Sodhi (retd), a former judge of the Delhi Court, saying it is "voice of a judge" and that majority of people have similar "sane views".

Justice Sodhi said the SC cannot frame laws as it does not have the right to do so. The right to frame laws belongs to Parliament, he added.

"...Only Parliament will amend Constitution. But, here I feel the Supreme Court for the first time ‘hijacked' the Constitution. After ‘hijacking' they (SC) said that we will appoint (judges) ourselves and the government will have no role in it," he said in Hindi.

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The law minister said, "Actually, majority of the people have similar sane views. It's only those people who disregard the provisions of the Constitution and mandate of the people think that they are above the Constitution of India."

The government and the judiciary have been at loggerheads over the process of appointment of judges to the SC and the HCs.
While Rijiju has described the collegium system to appoint judges as something "alien" to the Indian Constitution, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has questioned the top court for striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act (NJAC) and a related constitution amendment.

Also the chairman of Rajya Sabha, Dhankar had said a law passed by Parliament, which reflects the will of the people, was "undone" by the Supreme Court and "the world does not know of any such instance".

By bringing the NJAC law, the government had sought to overturn the collegium system that came into being in 1992.

Meanwhile, the has questioned the government for delay in clearing the appointments of judges. Last week, the Supreme Court collegium reiterated the names of advocates for appointment as judges.

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