Supreme Court of India Collegium

Syllabus

Prelims- Polity | Judicial system

Mains- GS -II - Governance | Judiciary in India

Why in News?

The Supreme Court Collegium has officially recommended that Justice Yashwant Varma, who is undergoing in-house investigation into claims of cash hoard discovered on his official premises, be transferred to the Allahabad HC.

• Collegium System - It is a system under which appointments and transfers of judges are decided by a forum of the Chief Justice of India and the 4 senior-most judges of the Supreme Court.
• In the original constitution, there is no mention of a collegium.
• Collegium of the Supreme Court - Consists of 5 Senior most Judges including the Chief Justice of India.
• They will consider the elevation of Chief Justices/Judges of High Court to Supreme Court, elevation of Judges of High Courts as Chief Justices and elevation of Judges.
• In case of difference of opinion, the majority view will prevail.
• Since Constitution mandates consultation with the Chief Justice of India is necessary for appointments to judiciary, the collegium model evolved.
• Constitutional Provisions – According to Article 124, Supreme Court judges are appointed by the President of India in consultation with Chief Justice of India (CJI) and other judges that he deems fit.
• According to Article 217, High Courts judges are appointed by the President in consultation with CJI, Governor of the State and Chief Justice of that court.
• Evolution of collegium system - The collegium system has its genesis in a series of 3 judgments that is now clubbed together as the 3 Judges cases.
• Transfer of HC judge - In case of transfers, President may move a judge from one High Court to another, after consulting the CJI.
• While the transfer of a High Court judge is a collegium decision and separate from any disciplinary inquiry,
  • The SC has underlined that in-house investigations into judicial misconduct fall solely under the CJI's purview.
• The CJI, in such matters, seeks a report from the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court.
• The collegium procedures do not govern such inquiries.

Issues in Functioning of collegium system

• No-transparency in appointments - It is seen as a closed-door affair with no prescribed norms regarding eligibility criteria, or even the selection procedure.
• There is no public knowledge of how and when a collegium meets, and how it takes its decisions with no official minutes of collegium proceedings.
• Nepotism and favouritism - Allegations of nepotism and favouritism are rampant with judges in the collegium recommending their close relatives.
• Lack of diversity - The absence of an institutional mechanism to ensure diversity on the Bench in the judiciary is a problem.
• SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities are grossly underrepresented in the collegium picks.
• Non-filling of vacancies - Supreme Court judges often talk about the issue of pendency of cases, but still they are inactive in solving the problem.
• Difference of opinion - The conflicting opinion within the collegium members is hampering the functioning of the collegium system.
  • Recently, while CJI Lalit wanted to circulate the recommendations for appointment to the Supreme Court, two judges in the Collegium preferred deliberations in person.
• Issues with certain conventions - By convention, once a recommendation for the successor to the CJI’s office is made, the Collegium ceases to make decisions.
• Given that the CJI is appointed by seniority, many of them have a short tenure and these sorts of convention may slow down decision-making.

Reference

The Indian Express | Collegium system