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

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday sought to support the views of a retired high court judge who said the Supreme Court ldquohijackedrdquo the Constitution by deciding to appoint judges itselfRijiju shared the video of an interview of Justice R S Sodhi retd a former judge of the Delhi Court saying it is ldquovoice of a judgerdquo and that majority of people have similar ldquosane viewsrdquoJustice 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 addedldquoOnly Parliament will amend Constitution But here I feel the Supreme Court for the first time lsquohijackedrsquo the Constitution After lsquohijackingrsquo they SC said that we will appoint judges ourselves and the government will have no role in itrdquo he said in HindiAlso Read Basic structure doctrine a North Star that guides interpreters of Constitution says CJI ChandrachudThe law minister said ldquoActually majority of the people have similar sane views Itrsquos only those people who disregard the provisions of the Constitution and mandate of the people think that they are above the Constitution of IndiardquoThe government and the judiciary have been at loggerheads over the process of appointment of judges to the SC and the HCsWhile Rijiju has described the collegium system to appoint judges as something ldquoalienrdquo 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 amendmentAlso the chairman of Rajya Sabha Dhankar had said a law passed by Parliament which reflects the will of the people was ldquoundonerdquo by the Supreme Court and ldquothe world does not know of any such instancerdquoBy bringing the NJAC law the government had sought to overturn the collegium system that came into being in 1992Meanwhile 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 judgesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever