Imagine for a moment that you’re part of the Ministry of Law & Justice.

You get a set of questions which you have to reply to in Parliament. Now, you’re not a big fan of these questions – they’re all about how many recommendations from the Supreme Court Collegium are pending, what the names of these proposed judges are, how many have been reiterated by the Collegium after being sent back, etc etc.

This is most inconvenient. I mean, everyone knows your Ministry, headed by Ravi Shankar Prasad, has not exactly had the best of relations with the Supreme Court over appointments in recent times. Heck, you even managed to make an ex-Chief Justice of India cry, after all. If only you didn’t have to answer all these pesky queries.