The Supreme Court today came out strongly against repeated attempts and misleading campaign being made to defame the judiciary, saying great demage is being done to democracy. A bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha observed this while dismissing a PIL seeking to declare the decision of the collegium to recommend the name of Karnataka High Court judge, Justice K L Manjunath as Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court as non-binding. The PIL filed in the Apex Court had sought that in future all recommendations of the collegium on appointment of judges should be put on the apex court website. At the outset of the hearing, the bench wanted to know from the petitioner as to who informed him about the name recommended by the collegium. The CJI further said that the collegium never recommended the name of Manjunath and there is some misleading campaign going on.
Defending the collegium system, Chief Justice R M Lodha said that he was the first of the judges to be appointed under the collegium system and at present all the judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts are the products of the same system. The CJI said as an institution the collegium had its limitations in selecting persons. After all judges too come from the same society. But to carry on a campaign just because of allegations against one or two judges is unfair, he said.