IANS Exclusive: New Delhi: Former Solicitor General Harish Salve called the collegium system "dysfunctional" after cash was reportedly found at Delhi High Court Justice Yashwant Varma’s home during a fire. He urged Parliament to reform judicial appointments for transparency, warning that a weak judiciary threatens democracy in the social media age. This is an existential crisis, he said.
#HarishSalve #CollegiumSystem #JudicialReforms #Transparency #DelhiHighCourt #Judiciary
#HarishSalve #CollegiumSystem #JudicialReforms #Transparency #DelhiHighCourt #Judiciary
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NewsTranscript
00:00See, I frankly don't know what the hell is going on.
00:06First, there is a newspaper report which makes a very serious allegation that there is cash at the judge's house.
00:15Then the day goes by, we are told that the Supreme Court has transferred the judge.
00:22Then we are told that the Supreme Court has ordered an inquiry into the judge.
00:27And then at 4.30, we are told that there was no cash recovery. I didn't know that.
00:32Delhi Fire Department, I am told Mr. Atul Garg, Director of Delhi Fire Department has refuted the reports.
00:41Please check or is this something again on WhatsApp which is false?
00:47I was told he has. Now, yeah, so now I think where we are at 7 o'clock in the evening.
00:55The Supreme Court, I believe has clarified that the transfer had nothing to do with this incident.
01:03May be true, may not be true, but it's for the public in the face of all that we have swallowed since morning, it's hard to believe.
01:13I think the only way forward now is his transfer should be suspended and inquiry ordered.
01:24I'm sure he will take a few days off. And after taking a few days off, because it's not a big deal.
01:37And the Supreme Court should order an inquiry. And I am making a radical suggestion.
01:42Of course, I make radical suggestions all the time.
01:45The Supreme Court should have a committee of three headed by a judge and two eminent outsiders.
01:52Conduct an inquiry into, it's a very basic fact, was any money recovered from his house?
02:00He says there was no money. I mean, the fire chief says there was no money recovered.
02:06If that is true, then a full scale criminal investigation into who planted these reports is required.
02:19If this is not true and money was indeed recovered from his house, then the committee will find him guilty.
02:30And then the law of the land will take its course. Not just impeachment.
02:35I'm sure he will resign and go away if he's indicted by independence.
02:39There's nothing grey, it's all black right now.
02:42On the one hand, the newspapers wake you up to the ugliest story in my four and a half decades of the legal profession.
02:50I don't think I've ever heard such an ugly story of cash being recovered from a high court judge's house.
02:55Let me tell you, Justice Verma is one of the senior most judges, a judge I've hugely admired always.
03:01And I was devastated when I read this news. And with such confidence.
03:08So, if it shakes my faith in the judiciary, it surely shakes the common man's faith in the judiciary.
03:15Incidents like this are a wake-up call.
03:21That the system which we have today is dysfunctional.
03:26It is not equal to the task we are living in. Very turbulent and different times.
03:33Today, this is not the 60s and 70s and 80s, where by the time news came out took weeks and weeks and weeks, etc. etc.
03:42Today is the age of social media. Incident happens, it's taken on video, released in 15 minutes.
03:48The world knows what happened in your house 15 minutes ago.
03:525 minutes ago, 2 minutes ago. So, you know, it's very, very different.
03:58And then news goes viral. So, we have to cope. We have to live with these times.
04:04We need a more resolute system, a more robust system to deal with all this.
04:10And today, when all institutions in the world, it's not just India, Trump says I will not listen to judiciary.
04:17All over the world, institutions are under great amount of stress because of the pulls and pressures of the world.
04:26I think the judiciary, which is the most, which is a very co-equal institution in democracy.
04:33Can we live without a functioning judiciary? We can't. And if we can't live without a functioning judiciary,
04:39we have to strengthen it. A reminder. Reminder that the collegium system is unequal
04:48to dealing with the kind of problems that present themselves in matters of judicial accountability.
04:54I said before the contradiction came from the Delhi Fire Chief, I said if the allegations are true,
05:01transfer is the wrong thing to do. If he is not fit to be a judge in the Delhi High Court,
05:07how does he fit to be in Allahabad? Don't treat certain courts like dustbins.
05:13There's a problem here. We move the person there. See, it's different where sometimes somebody has a relative practicing in the court.
05:20Then to clear a public perception, you transfer a judge. That's different. That is no aspersion on the judge.
05:26It is just living up to the principle that justice must not only be done, it must appear to be done.
05:33It's a reminder that we need to restart the discussion.
05:38And I see the 500 people whom we have all voted to office have to put aside their political differences.
05:46Let them fight over the wax bill. Let them fight over the election bill.
05:51But this is one area on which they have to all sit down together, put their heads together,
05:55the collective wisdom of the 500 people we have sent to Parliament, come up with a structure.
06:00This is an existential crisis. You have to save this institution.
06:07There were certain minor criticisms. It can always be repaired.
06:11What the Supreme Court did is lay down two principles, which I don't accept at all.
06:16The Supreme Court said that the judiciary can be independent only if judges are appointed by judges.
06:21I don't believe that. Varma never said that. Varma said it in the context of executive versus judiciary.
06:27He never said that in the context of an NJAC. Justice Varma went public saying,
06:32if I see the way the collegium is working, I regret my judgment. If you remember, he said that.
06:37So that is one. The second proposition is that the law minister can never be on a committee for appointment of judges.
06:42I don't agree. The executive is a vital stakeholder in democracy.
06:47It's one thing to say the government cannot have a say in who will be a judge.
06:52It's another thing to say that it's a flaw to have the law minister as a person on a committee.
06:57It was in 2014. Actually, the NJAC was a law by UPA2.
07:05And it was defended by Modi government. I think Sibal had done it.
07:11So, you know, there was political consensus then. We need political consensus now.
07:16What a tragedy. If this allegation is false, then a very fine judge's image is being tarnished.
07:24And if that is not a good enough wake-up call, I don't know what else will be.
07:29I would call for very stringent action against the media if the story is false.
07:34You can't run a story like this unless you are 100% fact-checked.
07:41The media now is on trial.