Kiren Rijuju’s criticism of the judiciary has merit. But in the environment we are in today, if Rijuju’s comments have created apprehensions in the society, then that too is not baseless.
The remarks made by Law Minister Kiren Rijuju on the judges are not baseless. He criticized mainly two aspects. His first target was the collegium system, under which he said that there has never been a system in the world where the executive does not have any role in the appointment of judges. In this connection, he said, because of the collegium system, judges spend more time discussing transfer-posting than giving justice. His second target was the judges’ verbal comments. In this regard, he reiterated the complaint existing in the society that such comments create wrong perceptions in the society. There is merit in both of these criticisms. But in the environment we are in today, if Rijuju’s comments have created apprehensions in the society, then that too is not baseless. Because there is a deep grievance among a large section of the society that a phenomenon of capturing the system has progressed under the regime of the present government. Rather, there is a perception that due to this phenomenon the judiciary has already lost its edge and has often been seen to be weak in fulfilling its constitutional obligation to protect the fundamental rights of citizens.
This is the role of the judiciary, due to which a large section of citizens, despite doubting the intention of the government, today may not enthusiastically come forward for the independence of the judiciary. This lesson is justified that when the judiciary has not come forward for the freedom of the citizens, then why should the citizens agitate in its favor? Now this may be a mere coincidence, but it has been noticed that the day Rijuju said these things, on the same day the Punjab and Haryana Bar Association’s office was raided by the NIA. There the lawyers have said that their office will be raided in this way, this thing was beyond their imagination. But in India today a whole series of such unimaginable things has been prepared. The result is that the half-truth of the ruling party often outweighs the whole truth.
