Existing collegium system should not be derailed: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court said on Friday the existing collegium system should not be derailed on the basis of statements of “some busybody”, asserting the top court is one of the most transparent institutions.
Amid divisions within the judiciary and its festering dispute with the government over the system under which existing judges appoint judges to constitutional courts, it said it does not want to comment on what a few former apex court judges, who were once members of the Supreme Court collegium, are now saying about the mechanism.
A bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said, “Nowadays, it has become a fashion to comment upon earlier decisions (of the collegium) made when they (former judges) were part of the collegium. We don’t want to say anything on their comments.” “Let the existing collegium system which is functioning not get derailed. Collegium does not work on the basis of some busybody. Let the collegium function according to its duties, we are one of the most transparent institutions,” it said.
The top court was hearing a petition by RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj against the Delhi High Court order dismissing her plea seeking the agenda of the Supreme Court collegium’s meeting held on December 12, 2018 when certain decisions were purportedly taken on the elevation of some judges to the apex court.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Bhardwaj, said former apex court judge Justice MB Lokur, who was part of the SC collegium in 2018, had said in public domain that the decisions taken at a collegium meeting on December 12 that year should have been uploaded on the top court’s website.