The Court and the problem with its collegium

GS paper 2

Syllabus: Judiciary- Structure, functioning and conduct of business, issues with the collegium system

Directions: There have been many articles on collegium system (including yesterday). We are including only unique points from this article.

Source: The Hindu

Issues with the Collegium system:

• Extra-constitutional or non-constitutional body: brought in force by judgments of the Supreme Court.
• No seat for Non-Judge: There is no seat in the collegium for any non-judge neither from the executive, the Bar etc. This violates the principle of checks and balances.
• Opaqueness: lack of transparency as meetings are held a closed door.
• Nepotism: Scope for nepotism.
• Overlooks talent: Overlooks several talented junior judges and advocates.

Issues with judicial appointments:

• ‘Biased’ Collegium: Successive collegiums not putting forth names disliked by the Government.
• No one from ‘distinguished’ Jurist: There have been no appointments from the category of distinguished jurists (under Article 124)
• Preserve of judges: Appointments to the top court seem to be the preserve of judges from the High Courts with a handful of appointments from the Bar.

Way forward:

• Transparency: There is a need to revisit this and secure a better, broad-based and transparent method of appointing senior judges to the High Courts and the Supreme Court.
• Constitutional mandates: Some nodding acknowledgement should be given to a specific provision made by the founding fathers in the Constitution.

Insta Links:

Collegium system

The principle of seniority and next CJI(FFP)

Mains Links:

Q. Critically examine the Supreme Court’s judgment on ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014’ with reference to appointment of judges of higher judiciary in India.(UPSC 2017)

Prelims Links:

• Collegium system
• NJAC
• CJI
• Article 124
• Memorandum of Procedure of 1999