Nominated by the Supreme Court collegium, which comprises the Chief Justice of India and 4 of the SC's senior-most judges, for appointment as a judge in the SC,Gopal Subramanium was rejected by the Centre on the grounds of a CBI investigation allegedly linking him to the 2G scam.
Terming the Centre's decision mala fide, the former Solicitor General on Wednesday June 25,2014 withdrew himself from the exercise, thus kicking off an unprecedented spat between a judicial nominee and the Centre
"Meaningful consultation between the judiciary and the executive is the key. Appointment of judges should be a collective process (conducted) in harmony between the executive and the judiciary… this is what the memorandum of procedure says," said former Chief Justice of India M.N. Venkatachaliah.
The proposed Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), which will forward to the President names of judicial nominees after a meaningful consultation between the judiciary and the executive, has been envisaged as an alternative to the collegiums system, but remains nothing more than a proposal in Parliament.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has already said that establishing the JAC is one of his chief priorities.
It was during the previous NDA regime that the first attempt was made to bring in an alternative to the collegium system. The then Law Minister Arun Jaitley introduced a Bill in the Lok Sabha to this end, but it could not be taken to its logical conclusion owing to the dissolution of the House.
The UPA government's attempt to get parliamentary nod for the legislation pertaining to the Judicial Appointments Commission didn't succeed either, and the Bill remains pending in the Rajya Sabha.
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