‘Pitching nominees in Collegium is interference in judiciary's independence’

CHENNAI: Seeking inclusion of government nominees in the collegium system on appointments to the higher judiciary is tantamount to interfering in judiciary's independence and hence improper, DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said on Monday.

On the 'rift' between Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju and the Supreme Court over the collegium system, Stalin said it is unhealthy. The long-time demand is the representation of all sections of the society in the judiciary, a key pillar of democracy.

''The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) also desires only that,'' he said in his 'One among you answers' (Question and Answer) series. Seeking inclusion of government nominees in the collegium system on appointments to the higher judiciary is tantamount to interfering in judiciary's independence and hence improper, he said.

In the matter of appointment of judges, the opinion of the State government itself is not respected in the present scenario, he said apparently taking a swipe at the BJP-led Central government. Against this background, the Union government representative's participation in the collegium system would not ''help even a little bit the cause of social justice based appointment of judges, not only in High Courts, but also in the Supreme Court,'' he said.

The ruling party chief said the release of apex court judgments in State languages including Tamil is a matter of immense happiness for him.

Recently, Rijiju had written to the Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud for the inclusion of government nominees in the collegium system. He defended it as a 'precise follow-up action' suggested by the apex court while striking down the NJAC Act.