Mamata Banerjee has said if the Union government’s representatives are included in the Supreme Court’s collegium, the Centre will directly interfere with the functioning of the judiciary and she is averse to such a system. Repeatedly asserting that she was in favour of complete freedom of the judiciary, the chief minister said on Tuesday that if the Centre’s proposal was accommodated, recommendations by the state government for the appointment of judges in high courts would be disregarded.

“This is a new type of planning. If the central government’s representative were there in the Supreme Court’s collegium... there will be no value in the state governments’ recommendations. Ultimately, the Centre will directly interfere with the functioning of the judiciary. That we don’t want,” Mamata said at the Calcutta airport, en route to north Bengal.

The Trinamul Congress chief was reacting to a January 6 letter from Union law minister Kiren Rijiju to Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, seeking the inclusion of government nominees in the collegium system. The letter is seen as a part of repeated attempts by the NDA government to wrest a role for itself in the appointment and transfer of judges in the higher judiciary.

Rijiju was reiterating the Modi government’s view that the memorandum of procedure (MoP) governing judicial appointments and transfers should be modified to give the executive a say.

Under the MoP, the collegium comprising five senior-most judges recommends judicial appointments and transfers, with the government allowed only one request for reconsideration and bound by rule to approve a recommendation once it is reiterated.

“We want justice for all; justice for freedom, justice for democratic and other rights. The judiciary is a very important temple for us, it’s like a mandir, a masjid, a gurdwara, a girja. They are the supreme authority to give justice to the people,” said Mamata on Tuesday.

She went on: “And this is the planning…. Already, whatever names are being sent by Calcutta High Court, I know… whoever is their supporter, that line is clear, that name is cleared within one month. Who is not their supporter, their list remains pending for three years.”

“I know one particular boy, his father was also a judge – Justice Mahitosh Majumdar. The son was Jaytosh Majumdar, and he died. This is the situation,” she added, referring to advocate Jaytosh Majumdar, whose name had been recommended by the collegium in 2019 for appointment as a judge of Calcutta High Court, but he died waiting, at age 54, last year. “What is this mockery that is going on?”