The ongoing dispute between the Supreme Court Collegium and the Central Government does not seem to stop at the moment. On Friday, former Supreme Court judge Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman gave a strong reply to Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju who made comments against the collegium.

Justice Nariman has also suggested that there should be a time limit for responding to the recommendations of the collegium. He has said that a bench of five judges should rectify this MOP (Memorandum of Procedure). My humble opinion is that once the collegium sends a name to the government, if the government does not respond within 30 days, it will be presumed that they have nothing to say."

In fact, allegations are being leveled against the Central Government that it does not respond to the suggestion of the collegium, due to which judicial appointments keep getting postponed. Sometime back also the collegium had suggested five names. It also included the name of Senior Advocate Saurabh Kirpal (Openly Gay Advocate Saurabh Kirpal). The government had objections to Saurabh being gay. The government sent back the names. The collegium again recommended those names, on which the government has kept silence till now.

Justice Nariman said that this is being done by the government to take advantage of the frequent changes in the composition of the collegium, “Sitting on names is a very dangerous thing against democracy in this country. Because what you are really doing is that you are waiting for a particular collegium. You are hoping the collegium will change its mind. So it is very important that a Supreme Court judgment sets a deadline for the government to respond."