Rijiju was responding to questions by India TV’s Rajat Sharma on the show “Aap ki Adalat”.
“What PM Modi has done in 8.5 years to increase facilities for judges, make court halls, lawyers chambers etc.. first the fund is approved for that. ₹9,000 crores was approved for judiciary and no other government has done all this. After we have done so much for judiciary, we are said that we are hijacking judiciary. Truth is there is a problem with their thinking,” he said.
Rijiju also said that it was the Congress government during national emergency which attempted to control judiciary when late Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister.
“Committed judiciary argument came during the regime of PM Indira Gandhi. That was a time when the seniority of a senior judge was ignored and a junior was made a senior. Emergency was declared and judiciary was controlled and they blame us now,” said Rijiju.
The Law Minister also said that the Supreme Court collegium should not have disclosed confidential information furnished by intelligence agencies regarding candidates recommended for judgeship
The Collegium had recently published on the Supreme Court website statements containing reasons given by Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) on why the government was opposing candidature of certain persons for judgeship. The Collegium had in its resolutions, also given detailed response to the reasons cited by the government.
“Judges have put it in public domain…Judges say this is for transparency,” Sharma said.
“The measure of transparency is always different. There are things in national interest which should not be disclosed in public domain and there are things which should be said in public domain. This rule is clear,” Rijiju replied.
The Law Minister also said that he would not want to comment further on the issue but will address the same in an appropriate forum.
Source: Barandbench
