Former Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul has discussed the issues related to the functioning of the judiciary, appointment of judges and independence of the judiciary in his book 'Without Fear or Favour'.
Sanjay Kishan Kaul is in the headlines even before the launch of this book. In this book, he has also mentioned his disagreement with former Supreme Court Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on some issues.
He has written in his book that former Chief Justice DY Chandrachud used to discuss the names proposed for appointment of judges in the Supreme Court Collegium with the government even before the formal discussion on them. Justice Kaul did not like this method.
In an interview given to BBC correspondent Vineet Bhalla, Justice Kaul talked with former Chief Justice DY Chandrachud about the differences regarding the process of appointment of judges and the shortcomings of the collegium system.
According to Kaul, due to lack of transparency and time bound process in appointments, many qualified lawyers hesitate to become judges.
He said that the role of governments has been a matter of controversy in the appointment process, while there should be no interference of the government in judicial decisions. He also expressed the need for improvement in the system of allotment of cases and determination of benches for hearing in the Supreme Court.
In the book, he has tried to present his judicial journey in the form of a story. He told that this time he has written in easy language, so that this book is not limited only to lawyers, but common people can also read it easily and understand his story.
According to Justice Kaul, he met Chandrachud in college and he had a good relationship with him. Justice said, "I have also discussed consent with him in the book, but it is not mentioned."
Justice Kaul says, "I have also praised his intellectual skills and working ability in the book. But there were disagreements between us on some issues. A major issue among them was the appointment of judges. I believed that as long as the collegium system is in force, the decision on the appointment of judges should be taken within the collegium itself."
"After this, talks can be held with the government, but there should not be any arrangement for taking prior approval."
Justice Kaul also talked about the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case. He told that initially this case was transferred from his bench to another bench because another judge had tried to bring all the cases together for hearing before his bench.
Justice Kaul said that he had asked the Chief Justice as to how his case went to another bench. According to Justice Kaul, as he had a few months left for retirement, he was not particularly interested in hearing any particular case, but he also did not want to shy away from his responsibilities.
Justice Kaul has said that there are some flaws in the judiciary and it is very important to streamline the appointment process of judges. He said that due to shortage of judges, the burden of cases increases and people do not get justice on time.
He suggested increasing the retirement age of High Court judges to 65 years. He said that with this, the retirement age of High Court and Supreme Court judges will become the same and the judiciary will be able to get the services of experienced judges for three more years.
According to Justice Kaul, his bench had proposed to the government to fix deadlines for different stages to streamline the appointment process of judges. He regretted that the then Chief Justice DY Chandrachud removed this case from his bench without giving any reason.
