Advise Centre to exercise restraint on comments: SC tells attorney general

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court (SC) objected to the comments made by “people holding constitutional posts” against the collegium system. A bench of justice Sanjay Kaul, AS Oka and Vikram Nath urged the attorney general to advise the Centre to exercise restraint.

According to a report by LiveLaw, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Vikas Singh, urged the apex court to issue a writ of mandamus or initiate criminal proceedings against the Centre for not sending their recommendations for the post of judges.

“Persons in constitutional posts are saying the Supreme Court does not have the power to exercise judicial review. That is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution. It is a little upsetting,” Singh said, as reported by LiveLaw. A mandamus is issued to order a person to do their duty.

Vikas Singh, in November, brought to the notice of the apex court law minister Kiren Rijiju’s interview with a TV channel, wherein he had said, “Never say that the government is sitting on the files, then don’t send the files to the government, you appoint yourself, you run the show then”.

The Supreme Court asked if the recommendations were withheld since the law passed by the Centre on setting up the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) could not pass muster.

On December 8, justice Kaul said, “Tomorrow people will say the basic structure is also not a part of the Constitution.”

“Mr Singh is referring to speeches…which is not very good for…making comments on the Supreme Court collegium is not very well taken. You have to advise them to control their…” justice Nath said, as per LiveLaw.

In his maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha on December 7 and at a public event last week, vice president Jagdeep Dhankar criticised the Supreme Court’s judgement overturning the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).