Judges should also think about their accountability, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

Remarking that the Constitution of India envisages a “system” of accountability, the Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad yesterday said that at times, the Judges should give a thought to their accountability..“We are accountable to the Parliament ..and further to the People of the Country.. at times, the Judges should also think about accountability.. who are they accountable to..?”.Ravi Shankar Prasad was speaking in the Lok Sabha during the passage of consideration of the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2019 which increased the strength of the Supreme Court to thirty-three (33), excluding the Chief Justice of India..Lok Sabha passes Bill to increase the strength of the Supreme Court to thirty-three Judges.Prasad clarified that be it the State Government or the Central Government, it must not interfere in Judiciary but should give its “full support”..“The role of the Government is to give the infrastructure but as far as hearing of the case and delivering judgment is concerned, that is the job of the judiciary.”, he said..Prasad also took the opportunity to voice his dissent with respect to the NJAC judgment..“I respect the judgement.. but I do not agree with the reasoning of the Supreme Court (that fairness in the NJAC process cannot be expected due to the presence of the Law Minister).”.Prasad remarked that the Prime Minister enjoyed the trust of the entire nation and to conclude that he, through his Law Minister, could not appoint a “fair judge” was an “unfortunate” logic..“The Government is absolutely committed to an independent judiciary but to say that the country’s polity has no role.. is a big question.“.The Minister further exclaimed that he was a supporter of Public Interest Litigations..“..but these days some people read the newspaper in the morning and file a PIL at 11 in the morning.”, he added..He also reiterated that it was the right of the judges to say whatever they wanted in their judgments, but they should refrain from making “sweeping commentary” which is not part of the judgments..Prasad also spoke on the issue of creating new benches of High Courts and changing the names of certain High Courts and clarified that no change at this front would be brought without the consensus of the High Courts..Watch his speech below: