Ending the fracas

The government and the Supreme Court need to reconcile on the matter of introducing reforms in the process of appointing judges

- VK BAHUGUNA

For the last few days, people have been keenly witnessing the proceedings of the Apex court and the acerbic comments made by a Constitution bench on the appointment of Arun Goel as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). The bench criticised the appointment, saying it was made in a ‘tearing hurry’, and questioned the process and criteria adopted by the government in shortlisting the candidates. The court said that Goel’s appointment to the post of CEC just a day after his resignation seems questionable. This is for the first time in recent history that an Attorney-General in R Venkatramani forcefully, yet very politely, reminded the bench not to cross the ‘Laxman Rekha’ and refrain from questioning the routine decisions of the Executive. Venkatramani also asked the perpetual antiestablishment litigant, advocate Prashant Bhushan not to interfere in between AttorneyGeneral’s arguments. The SC had reserved its decision on the petition for the appointment of an Election Commissioner. This issue has, however, again opened the door for the possible escalation of conflict between the Executive and the Judiciary. Let us examine it from the point of view of harmony between the two wings of the government. It appears that the Central government is now reacting to the increasing overreach of the Judiciary in the domain of the executive.