Politics · India Bureau
Collegium cannot escape political pressure, says retired SC judge
Former Supreme Court judge Sanjay Kaul has warned that judicial independence remains under strain despite the collegium system. He attributed ongoing tensions to the government's lingering resentment over the top court's 2015 decision to strike down the National Judicial Appointments Commission.
LSN India ·
Retired Supreme Court judge Sanjay Kaul has dismissed suggestions that India's collegium system operates in isolation from political pressure, noting that such an assumption is unrealistic given the country's institutional dynamics.
Justice Kaul traced the persistent tensions between the judiciary and executive to the political establishment's inability to accept the Supreme Court's October 2015 judgment that invalidated the NJAC, a government-backed mechanism for judicial appointments. The decision preserved the collegium system, under which senior judges select their peers, but provoked significant pushback from the government.
The former judge's remarks underscore the ongoing friction between India's constitutional institutions over judicial appointments and independence. While the collegium system remains in place, critics have argued it lacks transparency, while proponents defend it as essential to protecting judicial autonomy from executive interference.
Justice Kaul's comments highlight how the 2015 NJAC verdict continues to influence centre-judiciary relations nearly a decade later, with the government's resentment affecting the broader political environment in which the collegium operates.