New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday told the Central government that the law laid by its constitution bench regarding the collegium and appointment of judges must be followed and it cannot continue to cite the opinion of a few judges against the collegium to delay the clearing of the names mentioned by it.
The bench comprising of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Abhay S Oka, and Justice Vikram Nath was hearing a plea by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation against the Centre sitting over the names recommended by the collegium for appointment as judges.
Justice Kaul told the Centre that they were "conveniently" picking up the views of some judges and including it and asking how will it change the collegium's decision.
"You have conveniently picked up some views of the judges and included that. How can that be done? You may want some changes but in the meantime collegium along with the Memorandum of Procedure(MoP) has to work. Now it looks just like a blame game," said Justice Kaul.
He also said that even though some judges might have opined against the collegium system but that doesn't change the constitutional bench judgment regarding the timely appointment of judges adding if today's government doesn't follow laws, tomorrow some other section might ignore it.
Attorney General of India, R Venkatramani said that the government thinks there is a need to change the MoP to which the top court said that till there is no change in it, it is final and has to be followed.
"When the collegium gave something on how the MoP should be irrespective of what suggestions you gave that is supposed to be the end of it. No back and forth. Can observation of two judges weigh down the final view of the collegium?" said the court.
"There is an existing MoP and you think some changes are desirable and it is like you want a change in the legal process but that does not change the settled law," said Court.
Vice President's recent statement against the collegium was pointed out to the court to which the court expressed displeasure. "Tomorrow people will say the basic structure is also not part of the constitution," said Justice Kaul. The court told the Attorney General that he has to do a little better and sort the issue out as a senior law officer of the court. It also noted in its order that "sending back the second time reiterated names is a breach of our earlier direction".
