After accusing the existing judges-selecting-judges mechanism of being opaque, the Centre has written to CJI D Y Chandrachud, proposing the inclusion of government representatives in the 25-year-old Supreme Court-created two-tiered collegiums for infusing transparency and public accountability into the selection process of constitutional court judges.

The letter from Law Minister Kiren Rijiju to the CJI is the latest in a string of criticisms from constitutional authorities, including the Vice-President and Lok Sabha Speaker, who have also accused the Supreme Court of frequently intruding into the domain of the legislature.

A month and a half after publicly stating that the collegium system lacked transparency and accountability, the minister has proposed including representatives from the government in the SC collegium and representatives from concerned state governments in the HC collegium to dispel the notion that the process for selecting constitutional court judges is opaque. The letter's thrust is consistent with government thinking, which was based on a decade-old statement by widely respected Justice Ruma Pal.

Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has written to Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, suggesting that government representatives be included in the 25-year-old Supreme Court-created two-tiered collegiums to increase transparency. According to reports, Rijiju proposed that the state government be included in the HC collegiums and that officials from the Center be included in the SC collegium. In a written response to the Rajya Sabha in December, Rijiju stated that the Center had received complaints about the collegium system for appointing judges lacking openness, neutrality, and socioeconomic diversity.

The Centre's shift in strategy, from making critical statements against the collegium and the functioning of the SC to directly engaging with the CJI via letter, appears to be a structured strategy to meet the challenges of judicial orders and observations by a SC bench led by Justice Kaul, who is also a member of the collegiums, to expedite implementation of collegium recommendations on judge appointments and transfers.

To criticise the SC's approach, government sources cited the maxim 'nemo judex in causa sua,' which the SC frequently uses in its judgements to convey that no man shall be a judge in his own cause. There is also a section within the Supreme Court that believes that a judge who is a member of the collegium to select judges should not, in principle, pass orders on the judicial side directing the implementation of administrative recommendations to which he is a party.

Justice Pal's more than two-decade-old observations about the opacity of the judge-selection process gained prominence after they were cited in the decisions of two judges on the five-judge bench that overturned the NJAC Act. The SC took over the judge selection process from the executive and entrusted it to the collegium in two Constitution bench decisions in 1993 and 1998. Prior to the creation of the collegium system by the Supreme Court, Article 124 of the Constitution stated that the President (read government) will appoint SC judges in consultation with the CJI and such other SC and HC judges as may be necessary.