Mahua Moitra in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The government has written to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to disallow an MP’s provisionally accepted question (PAQ) in the Upper House on the ‘Position of India in Democracy Index’, seeking the reason why India slid to the 53rd position in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, The Indian Express has learnt.
The question, scheduled for a response on February 10, had been asked by TMC MP Shanta Chhetri.
She wanted the Minister of External Affairs to cite the reasons for India’s slide to the 53rd position in the EIU Democracy Index, whether the government was aware that it reflected India in poor light, and whether the government had taken steps to improve India’s ranking.
Govt ‘never deliberately’ delayed appointments of judges: Rijiju
The government has “never deliberately” delayed the appointments of judges, instead it has carried out “due diligence” to ensure that only those who are fit to hold the posts make the cut, Union minister of law and justice Kiren Rijiju told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Rijiju also said he has been pushing the Supreme Court and High Court collegiums to give preferences to women and those from backward classes while recommending the names for appointments of judges.
“The government, on its own deliberately, never held up any appointment cases. Government has to do due diligence while appointing judges because while appointing the judges we have to ensure that he is fit to be a judge in the court. This is very important. And then, all the cases which then come to us has to follow a process. Some of the names are with the Collegium in the Supreme Court. Some of the names are with government at different stages and this is a well-established process as per the memorandum of procedure. And we don’t make any delay on our part just because we don’t want to make any kind of judgment on our own, but only to look after the issue of appointing only the qualified judges,” Rijiju said.
