CourtsSupreme Court
Justice Narasimha recuses from plea over 11-year delay in judges' appointment rulebook
The judge stepped away from Lok Prahari's petition on the Memorandum of Procedure because he had argued the NJAC case for the government as Additional Solicitor General.
Key points
- Justice PS Narasimha recused himself on Monday from a PIL on the judges' appointment rulebook.
- The NGO Lok Prahari says the revised Memorandum of Procedure has been pending for nearly 11 years.
- The plea also asks for Collegium decisions to be brought under RTI.
Supreme Court judge Justice PS Narasimha recused himself on Monday from hearing a public interest petition on the long delay in finalising the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), the rulebook that governs how judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are appointed, elevated and transferred.
The petition, filed by the NGO Lok Prahari, was listed before Justices Narasimha and Alok Aradhe. Justice Narasimha said he could not hear it because he had appeared as Additional Solicitor General in the NJAC case, the government’s attempt to replace the Collegium with a commission, which the Supreme Court struck down in 2015.
The court did not give a fresh date, and it was not said which bench will now take up the plea.
What the plea wants
Lok Prahari says the revised MoP has remained unfinished for nearly 11 years despite repeated letters between the Union government and the Supreme Court. It also points to the absence of clear, public criteria for choosing judges for the constitutional courts.
The NGO wants the Chief Justice of India, on the administrative side, to amend the MoP as the 2015 NJAC judgment requires, and the Law Ministry to finalise it within a month after consulting the CJI. It asks that appointments rest on the Collegium’s unanimous view and that Collegium decisions be brought under the Right to Information Act. The MoP, the plea says, must ensure “impartiality, fearlessness, transparency and purity”.
A long wait
The MoP was first drawn up in June 1999. After striking down the NJAC on 16 October 2015, the court in December that year left the redrafting to the Centre, and the talks stalled amid disagreements with the Collegium. In 2017 a bench of Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit said the issue “cannot linger on for indefinite period”, but that order was later recalled.