Selection to SC should be more open: Delhi CJ

NEW DELHI: The best known victim of the existing system of judicial appointments has suggested reforms on the verge of his retirement .

A P Shah, chief justice of the Delhi High Court who was surprisingly bypassed for appointment to the Supreme Court, has suggested that when a senior HC judge is not elevated to the SC, the reason should be recorded by the collegium and conveyed to him.

On a day when he publicly admitted he couldn't ``pretend not to be hurt'' on not making it to the SC, the widely acclaimed judge told TOI, ``The systemic problem in the collegium is lack of transparency. There is too much secrecy. No reasons are recorded for rejecting any one. The only way the collegium system can be improved is by making it more transparent."

``I am not saying you have a public hearing, but at least the candidate should know why he was bypassed,'' the judge said. ``It seems right now there are no parameters for selection of judges, no procedures for conduct of business of the collegium.'' He added that he would not accept any post after retirement and would instead focus on social issues.

Justice Shah is the author of two landmark verdicts (on decriminalisation of consensual homosexuality between adults and applicability of Right to Information Act on the Chief Justice of India). The SC collegium ignored him for elevation despite his being one of the seniormost judges in the country. The decision has drawn a lot of criticism, including from top jurists like Fali S Nariman and former chief justice J S Verma who described him as ``one of the finest judges in the country.''

The high esteem Justice Shah is held in was evident on Thursday when a full court gave him a standing ovation and bid farewell. In another rare development, the influential Delhi High Court Bar Association took exception to the bypassing of Justice Shah, saying the SC collegium should have taken into account the opinion of the bar.

``If the bar is the judge of judges, a litigant is the consumer. If these two entities have an opinion of a judge it should be taken into account by the collegium. The system has to change,'' HCBA president and additional solicitor general of India A S Chandhioke said. Pointing out how the legal community felt the man "richly deserved" to be elevated, Chandhioke added, "In my 30 years of career I have never seen a farewell where 50% of judges' eyes are moist."