{"id":14574,"date":"2021-03-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/27-03-2021\/delay-in-judicial-appointments-sc-to-centre\/"},"modified":"2021-03-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-27T00:00:00","slug":"delay-in-judicial-appointments-sc-to-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/27-03-2021\/delay-in-judicial-appointments-sc-to-centre","title":{"rendered":"Delay in Judicial Appointments: SC to Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court asked the government to clarify the status of <strong>55 recommendations<\/strong> made by the<strong> Collegium for judicial appointments<\/strong> to various <strong>High Courts six months to nearly a year-and-a-half ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>About <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Collegium made 44 recommendations out of 55 to fill vacancies in the Calcutta, Madhya Pradesh, Gauhati, Rajasthan and Punjab High Courts.\n<ul>\n<li>These recommendations have been pending with the government for over seven months to a year..<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The total sanctioned judicial strength in the 25 High Courts is 1,080. However, the present working strength is<strong> 661 with 419 vacancies<\/strong> as of March 1.<\/li>\n<li>Some of these High Courts were functioning only with half their sanctioned judicial strength.\n<ul>\n<li>On average, the courts <strong>suffered at least 40%<\/strong> judicial vacancies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/104117999573429660_image.png\" style=\"height:219px; margin-left:150px; margin-right:150px; width:421px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Collegium System<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is the system of appointment and transfer of judges that has evolved through <strong>judgments of the Supreme Court<\/strong>, and not by an Act of <strong>Parliament<\/strong> or by a <strong>provision of the Constitution.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The Supreme Court collegium is headed by the <strong>Chief Justice of India<\/strong> and <strong>comprises four other senior-most judges of the court.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>\u00a0A High Court collegium is led by its <strong>Chief Justice and four other senior-most judges<\/strong> of that court.<\/li>\n<li>Names recommended for <strong>appointment by a High Court collegium <\/strong>reaches the government only after <strong>approval by the CJI and the Supreme Court collegium.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Judges of the<strong> higher judiciary<\/strong> are appointed only through the <strong>collegium system,<\/strong> and the government has a role only after <strong>names have been decided by the collegium<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:735px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color:#fff2cc; width:468.0pt\">\n<p><strong>Constitutional Provisions for Appointment of Judges<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are appointed by the President under<strong> Articles 124(2) and 217 of the Constitution. <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Article 124(2) says:<\/strong> \u201c<strong>Every Judge of the Supreme Court<\/strong> shall be appointed by the <strong>President <\/strong>by warrant under his hand and seal after consultation with such Judges of the Supreme Court and of the High Courts in the States as he may deem necessary.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong>Article 217: <\/strong>\u201c<strong>Every Judge of a High Court<\/strong> shall be appointed by the <strong>President <\/strong>by warrant under his hand and seal after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the Governor of the State, and, in the case of appointment of a Judge other than the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice of the High Court.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Evolution of the collegium system<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The collegium system has its genesis in a series of Supreme Court judgments called the \u2018<strong>Judges Cases\u2019.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>FIRST JUDGES CASE: <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In S P Gupta Vs Union of India, 1981, the Supreme Court judgment held that consultation does not mean concurrence and it only implies an exchange of views.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>SECOND JUDGES CASE: <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In The Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association Vs Union of India, 1993, a nine-judge Constitution Bench overruled the decision and devised a specific procedure called<strong> \u2018Collegium System\u2019<\/strong> for the <strong>appointment and transfer of judges<\/strong> in the higher judiciary.<\/li>\n<li>The majority verdict in the Second Judges Case accorded primacy to the CJI in matters of <strong>appointment and transfer<\/strong>s while also ruling that the term <strong>\u201cconsultation\u201d<\/strong> would not diminish the <strong>primary role of the CJI in judicial appointments.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The role of the CJI is primal in nature because this being a topic within the judicial family, the executive cannot have an equal say in the matter.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>THIRD JUDGES CASE: <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In the Third Judges case (1998), the Court opined that the consultation process to be adopted by the Chief Justice of India requires \u2018consultation of plurality judges\u2019.<\/li>\n<li>The sole opinion of the CJI does not constitute the consultation process.<\/li>\n<li>He should consult a <strong>collegium of four senior-most judges<\/strong> of the Supreme Court and even if two judges give an adverse opinion, he should not send the recommendation to the government.<\/li>\n<li>The court held that the recommendation made by the chief justice of India without complying with the norms and requirements of the consultation process is not binding on the government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Criticism of the collegium system<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lack of Transparency and Accountability.<\/li>\n<li>Scope for nepotism.<\/li>\n<li>Embroilment in public controversies.<\/li>\n<li>Overlooks several talented junior judges and advocates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Efforts have been made to address concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Government appointed Justice M N Venkatachaliah Commission which favoured the change and prescribed a National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) consisting of the\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0CJI and two senior-most judges<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0The Law Minister<\/li>\n<li>An eminent person from the public, to be chosen by the President in consultation with the CJI.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In 2014 Government brought the <strong>99th Constitutional Amendment Act<\/strong>, the National Judicial Commission Act (NJAC) to replace the <strong>collegium system for the appointment of judges.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>In 2015, a <strong>five-judge Constitution Bench<\/strong> declared them <strong>unconstitutional on the ground<\/strong> that they posed a <strong>threat to the independence of the judiciary.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<ul>\n<li>Bench declared that j<strong>udges\u2019 appointments<\/strong> shall continue to be made by the <strong>collegium system in which the CJI will have \u201cthe last word\u201d.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Way Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This is a time to revisit the Collegium issue, either through a Presidential reference to the Supreme Court, or a constitutional amendment with appropriate changes in the original NJAC law.<\/li>\n<li>The \u201cthought process\u201d of both the government and Collegium should be modulated and the <strong>time frame needed to be fixed for both the Collegium and Ministry<\/strong> to complete the <strong>appointment process.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>\u201cThere should be an institutional basis for considering names from the Supreme Court Bar, rather than considering them on an ad hoc basis.\n<ul>\n<li>It should be done as a rule and not as an exception.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/supreme-court-asks-govt-to-clarify-on-55-collegium-recommendations-for-judicial-postings\/article34159911.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source :TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News The Supreme Court asked the government to clarify the status of 55 recommendations made by the Collegium for judicial appointments to various High Courts six months to nearly a year-and-a-half ago. About Collegium made 44 recommendations out of 55 to fill vacancies in the Calcutta, Madhya Pradesh, Gauhati, Rajasthan and Punjab High Courts. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[51,30],"class_list":["post-14574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-executive-judiciary","tag-gs-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/14360026268277current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}