How can CJI be involved in executive appointments, asks Vice President, says it's 'time to revisit'
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday wondered how can the Chief Justice of India, even by «statutory prescription», participate in the selection of the CBI director, and said it was time to «revisit» the norms. Such a procedure is not in consonance with democracy, he said, speaking at the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal.
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«To stir your minds, how can in a country like ours or in any democracy, by statutory prescription, Chief Justice of India participate in the selection of the CBI director?» Dhankhar said. «Can there be any legal rationale for it? I can appreciate that the statutory prescription took shape because the Executive of the day has yielded to a judicial verdict. But time has come to revisit. This surely does not merge with democracy. How can we involve the Chief Justice of India with any executive appointment!» he said.
Referring to his stint as Parliamentary Affairs Minister in 1990, Dhankhar said the Supreme Court then had eight judges. «More often than not, all the eight judges sat together (on a bench hearing a case)....When the strength of the Supreme Court was eight judges, under Article 145(3), there was a stipulation that interpretation of the Constitution will be by a bench of five judges or more,» he said.
«Please note, when this strength was eight, it (size of constitutional bench) was five. And the Constitution allows
