How can CJI be involved in executive appointments, asks vice president

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday questioned the legal rationale behind the chief justice of India being involved in executive appointments such as that of the Central Bureau of Investigation director, PTI reported.

“I can appreciate that the statutory prescription took shape because the executive of the day has yielded to a judicial verdict,” Dhankhar said at an event in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal. “But time has come to revisit. This surely does not merge with democracy. How can we involve the CJI with any executive appointment?”

The panel that selects the director of the central investigative agency includes the prime minister, the leader of the Opposition and the chief justice of India. This process was set up by the Supreme Court in the 1997 Vineet Narain judgement and through the amendments the 2013 Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act made to the 1946 Delhi Special Police Establishment Act.

VIDEO | Addressing a gathering at National Judicial Academy in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar (@VPIndia) said: “To stir your minds, how can in a country like ours or in any democracy, by statutory prescription, Chief Justice of India participates in the… pic.twitter.com/2BUvcBfp5O

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 14, 2025

The vice president called executive governance by a judicial decree a “constitutional paradox” that India, as the largest…

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