Most of us may not be lawyers or understand the nitty-gritty of the working of our judicial system, but almost all Indians understand, believe and are convinced without an iota of doubt that 1) the judicial system in India is the only saving grace for an otherwise bleak future of this country. 2) the political class is synonymous with all that is corrupt, partisan, biased, immoral, partial, intolerant and self-aggrandizing. It came as a great relief to all Indians when the apex court rejected the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act terming it as unconstitutional and void. To common people like us the bill brought forth by the political class, effectively seeks to wrest the power of appointing judges from the judiciary and vest it unto itself. And it appears that political parties, who otherwise refuse to cooperate with each other to pass legislation in national interest, unite unanimously for these devious machinations. Devious because, if the Supreme Court had to accept it, like the police force and the “caged parrot” CBI and all other law enforcing authorities, every order passed by judges would be viewed with suspicion and given a political colour. And as a large portion of litigation in courts involves politicians, we could have a judicial scenario similar to the CBI scenario. At any given time, the investigation and conviction of politicians (I cannot recollect when the last conviction was) by the CBI involves the opposition politicians of that time. The reason is obvious. Caged parrot, as the courts called it. We may well criticize our country’s slow as a snail judicial process, but by and large everyone has full faith in it, despite many recent cases of pliant judges coming to the fore. Still the people of this country believe in the collegium system, whereby the judiciary appoints its own. In spite of there being some flaws in it, it is definitely more credible then allowing our politicians to choose the judges. And for those who may argue that the politicians appointed judges prior to 1993, suffice to say that that was a better breed of politicians then as compared to the lot (or should I say rot) now.
So the common man has received a shot in the arm which will not be taken by the political class lying down. It is hell bent on achieving its goal and will spring some other sinister surprise on us. But we have the Apex Court on our side. Three cheers to the highest court of the country! Long live the independent judiciary!
