The tug-of-war between the Central Government and the Judiciary is getting intensified day by day over the appointment of judges to constitutional courts. This is apparent from the recent tweet of Union Law Minister Kiran Rijuju.

The Tweet of the Law Minister has come, a day after Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud controverted the views of Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on the basic structure doctrine, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju approved the views of former Delhi High Court Judge RS Sodhi, who accused the Supreme Court of “hijacking” the Constitution by deciding to appoint judges itself.

Rijiju shared a video of Justice Sodhi’s interview in which the retired Delhi High Court Judge said the right to frame laws was with Parliament. Describing the view of Justice Sodhi as the “voice of a judge”, the Law Minister said "the majority of the people had similar sane views”. Only people who disregard the provisions of the Constitution and the mandate of the people think that they are above the Constitution of India”.

Law Minister said "Elected representatives represent the interests of the people and make laws. Our judiciary is independent and our Constitution supreme,”

Law Minister had earlier described the Collegium system of appointing judges as something “alien” to the Constitution.

In the interview, Justice Sodhi said, “After hijacking, they said that we will appoint ourselves and the government will have no role in it.”

A Supreme Court Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul has questioned the Centre Government over the inordinate delay in clearing the names recommended by the Collegium for appointment as judges of the Supreme Court and high courts. In a fresh round of confrontation with the Centre, the Collegium had last week rejected the Centre’s objections to the proposed elevation of senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal, an openly gay person, as a judge of the Delhi HC and reiterated its recommendations for four other appointments.

While making second reiteration of names of two advocates for appointment as judges of the Calcutta High Court, the Collegium said it was not open for the government to repeatedly send back the same proposal. The SC Collegium had also made public the recommendation of IB for the first time while reiterating the recommandation.