Hope rumour that Collegium will only recommend names likely to be approved by government is not true: Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan

Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan on Tuesday expressed grave concern at rumours that the Supreme Court Collegium is likely to only propose those names for elevation that are likely to be approved by the Central government. .The Senior Advocate spoke after Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit delivered the 2nd MK Nambyar Memorial Lecture organised by SASTRA University. "One very important point I want to highlight about independence of judiciary - there are whispers, and I hope they are not true, that the Collegium is thinking of sending recommendations only if they are going to be accepted by the government. This I think is a very dangerous proposition. I hope this does not ever come to be true!" Vaidynathan said.He explained that any such prior informal consultations would mean negation of the independence of the judiciary, contrary to the principles outlined in the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) judgment."It is very, very topical and I thought I must mention since the CJI is here," the senior lawyer said. .The judgment had declared the NJAC and the Constitutional amendments involved, to be unconstitutional and violative of the separation of powers doctrine. The NJAC would have provided for, among other things, a statutory body comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition, the CJI and others to appoint judges..In his speech, CJI Lalit spoke of how the late legal luminary, MK Nambyar, had laid out significant parts of what became our constitutional ethos."The seeds planted by Shri Nambyar have now resulted in such a huge Banyan Tree that under the shadow of that tree, every citizen can have solace that it is your efforts due to which our constitutional history has brought us here."Nambyar is the father of former Attorney General for India KK Venugopal, and was known for championing the cause of fundamental rights as well as the basic structure doctrine. .[Follow our live coverage of today's event].[Collegium system] Judges spending more time on judges appointments than deciding cases: Law Minister Kiren Rijiju