Justice Dipankar Datta urges strict action against external influences delaying judicial appointments and calls for a transparent, merit-based system.
Nagpur: On 28 June, Supreme Court judge Justice Dipankar Datta, while speaking at a felicitation event organized by the Bombay High Court Bar Association (Nagpur Bench) in honour of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, made important remarks regarding the appointment of judges in India.
He raised concerns over the delay in acting upon recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium and pointed out that such delays are often caused by “external forces,” which need to be addressed seriously.
Justice Datta also emphasized the need for transparency and fairness in the judicial appointments process.
During his speech, Justice Datta made a strong statement, saying,
“the external forces which prevent the Collegium’s recommendations from being acted upon should be dealt with sternly.”
He further stressed that if the system of judges appointing judges is to continue, then the recommendations made by the Collegium must be respected and acted upon promptly.
He said,
“That does not happen. I recall when I was a member of the Calcutta High Court Collegium in 2019, we had recommended a member of the bar six years. Nothing has been done. He is now 58 or 59… Why does this happen? Has anybody questioned? So therefore, the external forces which prevent the Collegium’s recommendations from being acted upon should be dealt with sternly and I feel that whatever proceedings are pending should be given top priority to ensure that merit, merit and only merit is considered and not extraneous considerations.”
Justice Datta underlined the importance of making the judicial appointment process more fair and open. He said that while people often criticize the Collegium system—where judges are involved in appointing other judges—it is also necessary to look at the flaws that existed before the Collegium system came into place.
In a direct appeal to CJI Gavai, he said,
“Sir, this is an appeal to you. It’s high time that we dispense the misconceived notion that judges appoints judges. Critics of the collegium system have been vociferous – why should there be a collegium system?”
Justice Datta reflected on the time before the Collegium system was established and spoke about how even before this system, deserving senior judges were overlooked for appointments to the Supreme Court. Referring to such instances from the 1980s, he stated,
“Let me go back to the 1980s of the last century and recall 3 Chief Justices of Bombay High Court. Chief Justice MN Chandurkar, Chief Justice Chittatosh Mookerjee and Chief Justice PD Desai. Those who have practiced before these three Justices and others would vouch that there were no less than the judges who made it to the Supreme Court in the 1980s.”
He then questioned why these highly respected judges were not elevated, even though they were considered equal in merit to those who did make it to the Supreme Court, saying,
ALSO READ: JUSTICE DIPANKAR DATTA
“Does anybody question the pre-collegial system of appointment of judges? We only refer to the supersession of the three judges by a judge in 1974. Just prior to the Kesavananda Bharati judgment and then the supersession of Justice Khanna by the next senior Supreme Court Judge. But why doesn’t anybody question why didn’t Justice Chandurkar, Chief Justice Mookerjee and Chief Justice Desai did not make it?”
Click Here to Read Our Reports on JUSTICE DIPANKAR DATTA
FOLLOW US FOR MORE LEGAL UPDATES ON YOUTUBE
