'Important part of the life of a judge is to never associate yourself with a cause': CJI

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Monday defended the collegium system to appoint judges, and said if the credibility of the Supreme Court is to be protected, allocation of cases to benches cannot be driven by lawyers.

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Justice Chandrachud made the comments in an interview with news agency PTI, in which he also desisted from responding to criticism about the Constitution bench ruling that upheld the abrogation of Article 370, stressed he felt no regret at being the minority in the same-sex marriage verdict, and said that the decision to keep the 2019 Ayodhya dispute judgment anonymous was a unanimous one by the bench.

His comments on the collegium come days after former Supreme Court judge justice SK Kaul called the collegium system "no longer the best mechanism to pick judges" and that the executive and judiciary should come together to formalise a transparent alternative.

In the interview, Justice Chandrachud said he saw the collegium system as the most consistent with the Constitution.

"To say that the collegium system is lacking in transparency would not be correct. We have taken steps to ensure that greater transparency is maintained. A sense of objectivity in the decision-making process is maintained. But I must also share something and that's my continued on caveat. When we consider judges for appointment in the Supreme Court we are dealing with the careers of the sitting judges of the high court.