Supreme Court collegium proceedings should be televised: Markandey Katju

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The sittings and proceedings of the apex court’s collegium should be televised nationally to help public know how the judges are selected, besides allowing prominent lawyers to pose questions and examine the candidates’ merits, ‘a practice similar to the one followed in the US senate’, said former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju.
“People, the supreme power in the country, have the right to know about the whole selection procedure,” he said while delivering a speech on ‘transparency in judiciary and media’ organized as part of the first T N Gopakumar memorial award ceremony.Katju presented the award, instituted by Asianet News, to Pallium India chairman M R Rajagopal.
Unleashing a scathing attack on Indian politicians, Katju said, “they, but for a few exceptions, are a bunch of goons, crooks and rogues, who do not have any national interest.”
“In a country which is still plagued by poverty, massive unemployment and poor healthcare, the political leadership’s interests are diametrically opposite to interest of the nation. Instead of taking India from the clutches of feudal system to a modern state, they strive for power with the support of caste, communal and feudal forces,” he said.
Asserting that a majority of the politicians were unpatriotic and unfit to be elected as people’s representatives, Katju said that a revolution was imminent as the situation could not last forever.
The former chairman of Press Council of India, also came down heavily on a section of media, especially the electronic media, for playing to the tunes of changing political parties in power and diverting peoples’ attention from real issues like poverty, unemployment and miserable life of people to non-issues surrounding Bollywood, cricket and petty politics.
Chief secretary S M Vijayanand, writer Zacharia, award jury chairman Dr M V Pillai and the late TNG’s wife Heather Gopakumar also attended the event.