President Pranab Mukherjee calls for 'highest standards of probity' in appointment of judges

Barely days after the Supreme Court striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday called for adopting the “highest standards of probity” in appointments of judges to high courts and the Supreme Court. Inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations of Delhi High Court at Vigyan Bhawan here, Mukherjee said whichever system of appointment was followed for Supreme Court and High Court judges, it must operate on well-established and transparent principles to select the best. [caption id=“attachment_2467188” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  President Pranab Mukherjee/ PTI[/caption] “No one can meddle in the process [of appointments],” Mukherjee said. The apex court verdict of 17 October has restored the collegium system, under which senior judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts choose members of the higher judiciary. The President said that swift selection must be no ground for sacrifice quality. “An autonomous judiciary is a vital feature of democracy. Yet being an important pillar of democracy, it must reinvent itself through introspection and self-correction, as and when necessary.” He said an affordable judicial system was a must for a country having many citizens at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid. “Quick delivery of justice is the third in the trinity of an effective judicial system, the other two being accessibility and affordability.” The President stressed that judicial activism should not lead to the dilution of separation of powers. The actions of the legislature and executive, Mukherjee said, are subject to judicial review but in the exercise of powers by the judiciary, “the only check possible is self-imposed discipline and self-restraint by the judiciary” and hence “the equilibrium in the exercise of authority must be maintained at all times”. The President pointed out that litigation is often time-consuming. “Delay in administering justice is as good as denial. There are over 60,000 court cases pending in the apex court, over 40 lakh pending in high courts, and over 2.6 crore in the district and subordinate courts. The phenomenon of high pendency must change through multi-dimensional effort,” he said.