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Senior officials in India's government have said they want to have a bigger role in choosing judges, a demand several lawyers and judges say threatens the independence of the judiciary.

Judges for the Supreme Court and the 25 high courts across India are appointed through a quarter-century-old mechanism that involves both sitting judges and government officials. A group of senior judges, known as the collegium, puts up candidates' names to the law ministry, and these names are approved if they clear security checks.

A senior law ministry official said the government is seeking a role in selecting the candidates and was not satisfied with only being involved at the concluding stage. The official declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The government has recently held back on approving several candidates, without giving a reason.

The law minister said in the upper house of the parliament in December that 165 high court judges were appointed last year against 331 vacancies.

Recently, the government told the Supreme Court that 44 more judges were likely to be appointed this month.

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has said the current system of appointing judges was opaque. "I am not critical about the judiciary or the judges, but I state a fact which is the reflection of the thinking of the common people of India," he told a news channel.

This week Rijiju's office said the minister was waiting for a response from the chief justice, the country's highest judge, to the government demand to review the structure of the collegium. A bill passed by parliament to change the process was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2015.

The dispute has exacerbated a shortage of high court judges and a backlog of cases. Official data shows 4 out of every 10 judicial seats are currently empty, and there are over 70,000 cases pending before the Supreme Court and over 5.9 million cases before the high courts.

Several lawyers and retired judges told Reuters they believed the government was seeking to influence the judiciary, which would be unconstitutional.

"We are seeing the legislative authority trying to become the supreme power," said N.Santosh Hegde, a former Supreme Court judge and a former Solicitor General. "The collegium system may not be completely perfect but it is not unfair."

Two lawyers affiliated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party said the government was trying to end favouritism. The lawyers declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media since the law minister, a member of the ruling party, was already addressing the issue.

One of the candidates who was not approved, lawyer Nagendra Ramachandra Naik, told Reuters he was rejected 4 times for a seat on Karnataka's High Court.

"I don't have a criminal record and my 30 years of work as a lawyer qualifies me for the position of a judge," he said. When asked about Naik's case, a senior law ministry official said the government's decisions about appointments are confidential. (Reuters)

A verdict in the espionage trial of Australian writer Yang Hengjun, detained by China since his arrest there four years ago, has been delayed until April, the seventh such delay, his supporters said on Thursday.

Pro-democracy blogger Yang is an Australian citizen born in China who was working in New York before his arrest at Guangzhou airport in 2019, coinciding with deteriorating relations between Australia and China.

A Beijing court heard Yang's trial in secret in May 2021 and the case against him has never been publicly disclosed. Yang has denied working as a spy for Australia or the United States.

"The Australian government is deeply troubled by the ongoing delays in his case. Since Dr Yang was detained, the Australian government has called for basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment to be afforded to Dr Yang," Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement marking the fourth anniversary of his detention.

Yang's case, and that of detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei, tried in secret on national security charges in March 2022, are being closely watched in Australia as the two nations seek to improve diplomatic ties after a leaders' meeting. read more

The first consular visit since October to the two journalists detained in Beijing took place on Jan. 13, after the Australian government called for consular access to be restored. Chinese authorities had previously suspended visits citing COVID-19 restrictions.

Asked about the delay in the verdict in Yang's case, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Australia should not interfere.

"The Chinese side urges the Australian side to earnestly respect China's judicial sovereignty, refrain from interfering in any form in the handling of cases by Chinese judiciary according to law, and take concrete actions to create conditions and atmosphere for the improvement of bilateral relations," Wang said during a regular media briefing.

A verdict in Yang's trial has been delayed by the court seven times, and his lawyer was told the deadline had been extended a further three months to April, his supporters told Reuters.

"Yang's arbitrary detention in China is an outrageous political persecution due to his advocacy for universal values such as human rights, democracy and the rule of law," said his former PhD supervisor at the University of Technology in Sydney, Feng Chongyi.

He urged the Australian government to secure Yang's release before any resumption of normal trade with China, adding there were concerns over his health, including malnutrition, after four years of imprisonment.

In a message viewed by Reuters that Yang sent to his friends from prison this month, he maintained his innocence.

"Four years is a long time. I came, I suffered, I thought. But I have not been conquered," Yang wrote in the message. (Reuters)

Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang submitted his resignation along with that of his cabinet to President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday, ahead a widely expected government reshuffle but there was no immediate word of his successor.

Su stepping down follows the ruling Democratic Progress Party's (DPP) trouncing at local polls in November, and comes as Taiwan gears up for presidential and parliamentary elections in early 2024.

The new Cabinet will only serve until the next administration takes over next year.

In a post on his Facebook page, Su said he had asked Tsai to appoint a new Cabinet so she could bring in new people.

Cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng said in a separate statement said that Su and his Cabinet will formally step down once Tsai has confirmed their replacements.

Su, 75, had originally submitted his resignation after the November poll losses, but Tsai asked him to stay on. (Reuters)

 Iran and South Korea summoned each other's envoys in a deepening spat over comments by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol that described the Islamic republic as the enemy of the United Arab Emirates.

Yoon, speaking to South Korean troops stationed in Abu Dhabi earlier this week, said South Korea and the UAE are under "very similar" circumstances, each facing North Korea and Iran as "the enemy, biggest threat."

Relations between Seoul and Tehran had already been testy over frozen Iranian funds in South Korea and suspected arms dealings between Iran and North Korea.

Yoon's office has said his comment was intended as words of encouragement for South Korean soldiers while the foreign ministry said on Thursday it had repeatedly offered explanations to Tehran.

Unappeased, Tehran summoned South Korean ambassador Yun Kang-hyeon on Wednesday, warning that bilateral ties could be reviewed if the issue was not resolved, according to a report from Iran's official IRNA news agency.

Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal affairs, Reza Najafi, told Yun that Iran has "deep-rooted and friendly relations" with most neighbours. He described Yoon's comment as "interfering", adding that Yoon was "undermining peace and stability in the region," the report said.

It added that Najafi also accused Seoul of pursuing an "unfriendly approach" toward Iran, and mentioned the issue of frozen funds. Iran has repeatedly demanded the release of some $7 billion of its funds frozen in South Korean banks under U.S. sanctions.

Hours later on Thursday, South Korea's foreign ministry said its vice minister Cho Hyun-dong had called in Iran's ambassador in Seoul, Saeed Badamchi Shabestari, to complain about Najafi's remarks.

The ministry said Najafi had made a "completely groundless" claim that Yoon had hinted at developing a nuclear weapon.

Yoon said last week that Seoul might have to push to redeploy U.S. tactical nuclear weapons or build its own bombs to deter North Korea, but is working instead to improve joint planning and execution of so-called U.S. extended deterrence or military capability including nuclear forces as a "realistic, achievable" means.

"Our president's remarks were intended to strengthen the effectiveness of the extended deterrence to counter North Korea's escalating nuclear and missile threats," ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk told a briefing.

Yoon's remarks could also spell headaches for him domestically. Opposition lawmakers have accused him of causing a "diplomatic disaster," while some members of Yoon's own party have also said he should have been more careful.

Seoul and Tehran have been in talks over ways to unfreeze the funds and about the resumption of Iranian oil imports. South Korea was once one of Iran's biggest crude buyers in Asia, but ceased imports after Washington imposed sanctions on Tehran in 2018. (Reuters)