Dhankhar: How can CJI play role in executive appointments? | India News

BHOPAL: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar Friday asked how CJI can get involved in executive appointments, and said it was time to “revisit” such rules. “How can, in a country like ours or in any democracy, by statutory prescription, CJI participate in selection of CBI director! Can there be any legal rationale for it? I can appreciate that the statutory prescription took shape because the executive of the day has yielded to a judicial verdict. But time has come to revisit. This surely does not merge with democracy. How can we involve CJI with any executive appointment?” Dhankhar said at National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, according to a press statement by VP’s secretariat.
The CBI director is appointed by Centre based on recommendation of a three-member panel comprising the PM, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, and CJI or a SC judge nominated by him. Expressing concern over breach of principle of separation of powers, Dhankhar said: “Executive governance by judicial decree is a constitutional paradox that the largest democracy on the planet cannot afford any longer.”