• UGI USER
  • Jan 07, 2023
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Collegium System and Appointment of Judges

Context: The Attorney-General recently informed the Supreme Court that the central government will adhere to the timelines fixed by the court to process recommendations for judicial appointments.

How Judges are appointed?

  • Article 124 says that every Judge of the Supreme Court shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal after consultation with such Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts in the States as the President may deem necessary for this purpose.
  • The word ‘Consultation’ has evolved through many judgements and now the judges in the de facto sense are chosen by a body called collegium.

What is Collegium?

  • The collegium system does not have traces in the Constitution or a specific law promulgated by Parliament.
  • The concept has evolved through judgments of the Supreme Court.
  • The Supreme Court collegium is a five-member body, which is headed by the CJI and comprises the four other senior judges of the court at that time.

How did the collegium system evolve?

  • The collegium system has its roots in a sequence of judgments called “Judges Cases”.
  • First Judges Case (S P Gupta Vs Union of India)
    • The Supreme Court by a majority judgement held that the concept of the primacy of the Chief Justice was not really to be found in the constitution. The judgement tilted the balance of power in favour of the executive.
  • Second Judges Case (Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association Vs Union of India, 1993)
    • A nine-judge Constitution Bench overruled the previous decision and devised a distinct procedure called the ‘Collegium System’ for the appointment and transfer of judges in the higher judiciary.
    • The verdict accorded precedence to the CJI in matters of appointment and transfers while also ruling that the term “consultation” would not diminish the primary role of the CJI in judicial appointments.
  • Third Judges Case
    • In 1998, President K R Narayanan issued a Presidential Reference over the meaning of the term “consultation”.
    • The inquiry was related to whether consultation required consultation with a number of judges in forming the CJI’s opinion, or whether the sole opinion of the CJI could by itself constitute a consultation.
    • This opinion decreed that the recommendation should be made by the CJI and his four senior most colleagues, instead of two.
    • The CJI should not send the recommendation to the government if two judges gave an adverse opinion.