Arun Jaitley says SC verdict on judges selections used ‘erroneous logic’
The finance minister, in a Facebook post, said democracy is in danger when there is “a tyranny of the unelected”.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley, on Sunday, said the Supreme Court striking down the National Judicial Appointments Committee Act, which gave the government a say in the selection of judges, was based on “erroneous logic”. Jaitley, in a Facebook post called ‘The NJAC Judgment - An Alternative View’, said the judgment had upheld the independence of the judiciary, but “diminished five other basic structures”, including the government and Parliamentary democracy.
Jaitley said that while the court’s opinion was final, it was not infallible, and that it was important that Parliamentary sovereignty was given as much importance as independence of the judiciary.
On Friday, the Supreme Court had struck down the NJAC Act which the Parliament had passed in August 2014 to end India's unusual system of judges selecting other judges, known as the collegium. The NJAC Act envisioned a six-person committee, including the law minister, being in charge of judicial appointments. The Supreme Court, however, deemed this act unconstitutional and has now restored the collegium system, which lets judges choose other judges.