Good Judges Are Not Being Appointed, Collegium System Not Functioning Properly : Sr Adv Dushyant Dave

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, in his interview with Livelaw, made some thought-provoking statements about the functioning of the collegium system. 

He opined that "good judges are not being appointed" and that the "collegium system is not functioning properly". Explaining this, he said that the Supreme Court does not react if the Executive ignores the resolutions which have been reiterated by the collegium.  

Although the Government is repeatedly violating the Supreme Court's judgment that Collegium reiterations are binding and that there should not be any "pick and choose" from the collegium resolutions, the Supreme Court is not doing anything. 

“So where the Collegium recommends the Executive doesn't like, the Collegium sits silently...the judges of the Collegium have no courage to ensure that their decisions are implemented as quickly as possible,” he said in his interview to Manu Sebastian, Managing Editor of LiveLaw.

In this context, he expressed a belief that there seemed to be "somewhere some compromise between the Collegium and the Executive".

It may be recalled that last year in November, the Supreme Court expressed disapproval of the 'pick and choose' approach adopted by the central government in selectively accepting names from the collegium resolutions for judges' appointments.

Sharing his insights on the 'pick and choose' approach, Dave cited a recent instance of the central government's delay in notifying the transfer of four Gujarat High Court judges.

“I have always said that Collegium system is disastrous and time and again Collegium system has exposed itself. Take for example, recently four Gujarat judges were ordered to be transferred. That order is not being implemented by the Government.”

"The Collegium is intellectually dishonest. Its own decisions which were taken long ago are not being implemented, while some are selectively being implemented by the Government. The Collegium system is sitting twiddling its thumbs. It's wrong because the government is in contempt and the Judiciary led by Chief Justice of India and the collegium have no courage to haul the Government in contempt."

Moving forward, he also spoke about how the collegium ignored the elevation of renowned judges like S. Muralidhar (Chief Justice of Orissa High Court) and Justice Akil Kureshi (Former Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court).

“Good judges are not being appointed. There are dozens of cases of outstanding judges who have been ignored and to the knowledge of the collegium. I must say with a great sense of pain that Collegium has allowed these good judges to be destroyed.”

Adding to this, Dave said that we have great judges, but many appointments are really questionable. He stressed that the sufferer is the institution and opined that this is causing irreparable damage.

“That is really something which has caused immense, I would say, irreparable damage to the institution of Judiciary. As a result of that inefficiency and to somewhat extent corruption charges are being levelled against Judiciary, which is not good for us.”

The video of the interview can be watched here.

Also Read - Judiciary In India Has Become Majoritarian : Dushyant Dave