Dear Sunil, What does this have to do with RTI ? If Dr Kunal Saha is disgruntled with Indian Judges (BTW, his case was poorly drafted / handled) there are other places to circulate his views.
Dr Saha has raised the issue of selection of US Supreme Court Judges. Anyone with even half a brain knows that those judges are selected on partisan basis for life, and they give their decisions on a strictly ideological basis. In any case the US SC is purely an appellate court which hardly takes up most appeals filed, whereas the Indian SC is very often used as a court of Original Jurisdiction and record. Lastly, simply posting a link with its accompanying text here serves no purpose, add your own views / analysis too. Sarbajit --- In [email protected], Sunil Ahya <sunila...@...> wrote: > > 1) Make judicial system more > transparent<http://www.deccanherald.com/blog/?p=152>Monday, December > 14th, 2009 > > The issue of selection of an allegedly corrupt Chief Justice of Karnataka, > PD Dinakaran, to the Apex Court still remains a hot subject of public > interest. While news of Dinakaran hits the headlines almost every day, the > Chief Justice of India (CJI), the principal architect of the Supreme Court > Collegiums that nominated Dinakaran in the first place, has chosen to keep > silent about whether or not Dinakaran should be impeached. > > This is on the ground that issues pertaining to the judges' selection > process should not be discussed in an open public forum. But the question > is why not? Citizens in any democratic country must have the right to know > the background and character of the judges that would decide rights and > wrongs of the society. > > Some try to argue that everything about the judges must remain behind closed > doors as otherwise their judicial independence might be jeopardized. Such > arguments can possibly have no logical basis. > > All federal judges in the USA, even for the Supreme Court, must go through a > rigorous cross-examination process by both houses of the Congress before > they could be affirmed for the judicial post. The cross-examination is > shown to the public in live television. > > This only provides more transparency to the entire system of judges' > selection and helps to weed out the corrupt and disingenuous persons ever > becoming a judge. > > Many judges in the US nominated by the president, even those selected for > the Supreme Court, have been rejected by the Congress after they failed to > perform when questioned about their sordid past in live public television. > > Justice Clarence Thomas, a sitting member of the US Supreme Court (they have > life-time appointment in the US federal courts), went through incredible > public humiliation during the public cross-examination process by the > members of the Congress before being appointed to the Supreme Court about > allegations of sexual harassment and his past relationship with Anita Hill, > one of his subordinates earlier in his career. > > But the intense public grilling of Justice Thomas did not infringe on his > judicial independence and instead, it perhaps made him a stronger and better > judge in the Apex Court. > > There can be no reason for the Indian CJI to go behind the curtain about > questions on Justice Dinakaran. Truth is always right and the justice > system must not shy away from bringing the truth to the knowledge of every > citizen of the country. > > May be it is time that the Indian lawmakers think about moving forward with > the time and make changes in the law for complete transparency in the > process of selection of judges. > > Posted by : Dr. Kunal Saha > Professor, HIV/AIDS Center > Columbus, Ohio, USA > > > -- > It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen - > Aristotle >
