“Govt is being overbearing; Court is the last Citadel of Freedom they want to capture”: Sr. Adv Kapil Sibal over Collegium System

“The Government is being overbearing, it has captured all other institutions. This (courts) is the last citadel of freedom that it wants to capture”, said Senior Advocate and Former Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal in an interview with Mirror Now on Friday.

He added that even though the collegium system is not perfect, it is better than the government having complete control over the appointment of Judges.

Sibal said, “I am not saying the collegium system is perfect. I have a lot of concerns about the way the collegium system works but I am more concerned about the fact that the government wants to capture the appointment of judges as well and have their own people there of their particular ideology…between the two at any day, I prefer the Collegium system."

“They(government) want their own people there. They have their own people in Universities; now their vice chancellors are theirs; the governors in the states are theirs who sing their praises…The less said about the Election Commission the better. All Public officers are controlled by them. They have their own people in the Directorate of Enforcement (ED); their own people in the Income Tax, CBI who are persecuting people they want. Now they want their own judges too”, the former Union Law Minister added.

Sibal also said, “The government wants the final say, they want their own people there, that’s their game plan…That is the reason why this issue has come up because they have such an absolute majority.”

According to Sibal, the collegium system is non-transparent and there is a lot of camaraderie, and the worst part of it is that high court judges now look at Supreme Court judges for their appointment, elevation which has impacted the independence of High Court judges as well.

“The last Citadel of democracy is the Court, and if that falls, we have no hope left”, Sibal said.

“There can be another institutional framework set up through a new legislative process- through Parliament which allows for both the court and the executive as well as certain independent voices to be in a collegiate system to recommend judges in a more transparent fashion”, Sibal suggested.

He added: “I am willing to have a debate but I am not accepting the government to say that let us appoint who we want to appoint. Then everything else is almost saffron, I don’t want the courts to be saffron too.”