New Delhi: Retired Supreme Court judge Justice L. Nageswara Rao on March 25 attended a protest in Jerusalem against the proposed judicial reforms in Israel. The large-scale protests across the country forced the Benjamin Netanyahu government to stall the reforms on Monday night.
Justice Rao also spoke at an emergency conference organised in Israel, titled ‘No Other Democracy in the World’, on threats to judicial independence, Bar and Bench reported. In his speech, he referred to India as a prime example of an independent judiciary, able to function separately from the country’s political leadership. That is why, he said, India can be considered a safe space when compared to Poland and Hungary.
He also talked about the Indian judiciary’s ability to review decisions taken by the executive. “Review of not only executive action, but legislative action, even an amendment to the Constitution, is permissible by the courts [in India]. And attempts that were made earlier to suspend fundamental rights have been stopped by the Supreme Court in the exercise of judicial review. There is an imperative need that you have independent judges who are efficient and work without fear or favor, and that is what has been happening in India. We’re in a safe space in comparison to what happened in Poland and Hungary,” he said, according to Bar and Bench.
The retired judge also talked about how the Indian Supreme Court had safeguarded judicial independence by rejecting the National Judicial Appointments Commission and sticking by the collegium system for appointing judges. “The proposed commission would have comprised the chief justice, and two senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, as well as the law minister, and two eminent citizens appointed by the executive. A Constitution Bench reaffirmed that appointment of judges to constitutional courts was a very important characteristic of the independence of the judiciary which had to be maintained for upholding the rule of law. Bringing in persons from outside the judiary to sit along with the law minister and veto the recommendations made by the court would amount to tilting the balance of power,” Justice Rao said, according to LiveLaw.
In a press statement issued after the conference, Justice Rao talked about the protest he had attended in Jerusalem, saying he had seen “democracy in full swing”. In any democracy, he added, people’s confidence is necessary to uphold the rule of law.
On Monday, Netanyahu announced that the plan to overhaul the judiciary would be delayed, saying he wanted to seek compromise with opponents of the controversial reforms.