Judges Appointing Judges A "Deeply Flawed System": Harish Salve
NDTV
In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Harish Salve also sounded a note of caution, saying courts should not be the first stop for resolution of any issue, and must intervene "only when there is a genuine constitutional issue".
Harish Salve, the former Solicitor General of India, weighed in on the issue of judicial appointments issue today, saying judges appointing judges is a "deeply flawed system" that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world. In an exclusive interview with NDTV, he also sounded a note of caution, saying courts should not be the first stop for resolution of any issue, and must intervene "only when there is a genuine constitutional issue". But even there, the interpretation of the constitution is "dynamic" and changes with the "mindset" of the court, he said.
There was also a note of criticism towards the earlier governments, which "left important decisions to courts". "The government of the day maintains a line of distinction between courts, and government... and is making policies proactively," Harish Salve said in a conversation with NDTV's Editor-in-Chief Sanjay Pugalia as part of a special series to mark the 76th Independence Day.
As an example, he cited the situation when kar sevaks were in Ayodhya in 1992. Whether the army should take action on not was not a decision the government was willing to take, and they had left it to courts. There on, every decision of import was left to courts, he said.