Representation filed before Calcutta HC to make its Collegium decisions public

A Representation has been filed before the Calcutta High Court for uploading the decisions of its Collegium with respect to elevation of lawyers as judges of the High Court, on its website.

The Representation prays for uploading of detailed decisions of the High Court’s Full Court meetings as well.

Filed by Advocate Debashish Roy, the Representation seeks to make public the application form submitted by a lawyer candidate for elevation to the High Court as a Judge, excluding their income.

The Representation appeals to the High Court to publish its Collegium decisions on its official website by taking a cue from the practice adopted by the Supreme Court on October 3, 2017.

“Moving straight to the issue without browbeating, the cry of the people of the State is transparency in  judicial appointments. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. The 3^rd October 2017 was a historic day for transparency, when no less than the Hon’ble Supreme Court making a commendable beginning (decided to publish its Collegium Resolutions on its website)….If the Hon’ble Supreme Court can make their recommendations “Public” why not this Hon’ble High Court?”

It cites incidents of “prevalent perception amongst us commoners that family members and former colleagues of the Hon’ble Judges are more likely to be appointed as Judges of a Hon’ble Court” to advocate for a more transparent system of judicial appointments.

The Representation, therefore, suggests the adoption of “criteria” followed by the Supreme Court, i.e. reputation and integrity as a lawyer, good reports from consultee Judges, adverse report by Intelligence Bureau, suitability of a Lawyer etc, as “a yardstick” to judge the suitability of a lawyer for elevation.

The Representation seeks to eradicate the “ingrained culture of concealment surrounding judicial appointments followed by this Hon’ble Court”.

“The need of the hour is that closed-door decisions of the Collegium of this Hon’ble Court need to become open. The sunlight does not dent the freedom of the judiciary, rather it sequesters the judiciary from the unnecessary interference from the politicized executive.”, it states.

Further stating that the virtues of transparency in contemporary constitutional governance indisputably outweigh the obligations of confidentiality, the Representation appeals,

“The administrative decisions of the Hon’ble Court need not to be deliberated furtively in the chamber and the records kept in its safe custody away from the public.”

It also expresses disappointment at the lack of information that a “commoner” receives on any event that is organized by the High Court.

“The oldest High Court in the country, getting a new complex and the official website of the Hon’ble Court being conspicuous by its silence. Indeed the bar associations of the Hon’ble Court were intimated about the said event but the said bar associations don’t even make up for a minuscule of the entire legal fraternity in the State.”

The Representation thus ends with a quote from a book authored by Alan Morton Dershowtiz, former professor at Harvard Law School,

“There is no perfect justice, just as there I no absolute ethics. But there is perfect injustice, and we know it when we see it”.

Read the Representation: