{"id":33317,"date":"2023-01-17T07:44:01","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T02:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33317"},"modified":"2025-04-19T21:13:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T15:43:56","slug":"government-nominees-in-court-collegiums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/government-nominees-in-court-collegiums\/","title":{"rendered":"Government Nominees in Court Collegiums"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the Collegium System?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Evolution of Collegium System<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is Memorandum of Procedure (MoP)?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the current status of MoP?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary: Government Nominees in Court Collegiums<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are the key suggestions given by Law Ministry in the letter written to CJI?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Union Law Minister has written to Chief Justice of India (CJI) to suggest a nominee of the Union government in the Supreme Court Collegium and a State representative in each of the High Court collegiums.<\/li>\n<li>The letter offered the suggestion since the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) is pending finalisation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the collegium system?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The collegium of the CJI and four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court make recommendations for appointments to the apex court and High Courts.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>collegium can veto the government<\/strong> if the n\u00a0ames are sent back by the latter for reconsideration.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The basic tenet behind the collegium system is that the judiciary should have primacy over the government in matters of appointments and transfers in order to remain independent.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Evolution of collegium System<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Constitutional Position<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Article 124(2) of Indian Constitution deals with the appointment of Judges of Supreme Court.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>As per this article:\n<ul>\n<li>President will <strong>consult<\/strong> such judges of the SC and of the HCs in the States as the President may deem necessary.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>CJI shall always be <strong>consulted<\/strong> in case of the appointment of judge other than the Chief Justice of SC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Controversy over the Word Consultation<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>This word consultation in Article 124 was interpreted by the SC in a different way ultimately leading to the evolution of Collegium system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Evolution of Collegium System<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>First Judges Case (1982) &#8211; <\/strong>SC held that <strong>consultation does not mean concurrenc<\/strong>e; Gave Primacy to Executive<\/li>\n<li><strong>Second Judges Case (1993) &#8211; <\/strong>Court reversed its earlier ruling by changing the meaning of consultation to concurrence.\n<ul>\n<li>Advice tendered by CJI is binding.<\/li>\n<li>CJI would take into account the views of two of his senior most colleagues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Third Judges Case (1998) &#8211; <\/strong>Court gave primacy to the opinion of CJI in the matter of appointment of Judges. However, Chief Justice must consult four seniormost judges of SC.\n<ul>\n<li>Opinion of all members of the collegium should be in writing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is Memorandum of Procedure (MoP)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The MoP is the official playbook agreed upon by the government and the judiciary on the appointment of judges.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It is a crucial document that governs the collegium system of appointing judges.<\/li>\n<li>Since the collegium system evolved through a series of ruling by the Supreme Court, and is not based on legislation, the MoP is the bedrock of the process of appointments.<\/li>\n<li>MoP fixes the protocol under which the collegium system works.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the current status of MoP?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0In October 2015, SC struck down the constitutional amendment that had brought in the <strong>National Judicial Appointments Commission<\/strong> (NJAC).\n<ul>\n<li>NJAC act had provided for a six-member panel, incl\u00a0uding the Law Minister and two independent persons, to appoint judges to the SC and the High Courts.<\/li>\n<li>It sought to change the system of appointment of judges to the higher judiciary by giving the government a say in the appointment process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>After this, the apex court had directed the government to finalise the existing MoP by supplementing it in consultation with the Supreme Court collegium.\n<ul>\n<li>The new MoP is to take into consideration eligibility criteria, transparency, establishment of a new secretariat and a mechanism to deal with complaints against proposed candidates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>So far, the Supreme Court and the Government have failed to reach at a consensus on revision of the MoP.<\/li>\n<li>A key point of contention was the inclusion of a national security clause that could thwart an appointment.\n<ul>\n<li>Officially, the government\u2019s stand is that the MoP is \u201cpending finalisation\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary: Government Nominees in Court Collegiums<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has written to CJI suggesting the inclusion of a government nominee in the decision-making process for shortlisting of judges.<\/li>\n<li>This letter is only part of an ongoing dialogue between the Government and the court regarding appointments and it is yet to be discussed by the Collegium.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the key suggestions given by Law Ministry in the letter written to CJI?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The search and evaluation committee for High Court judges should include a nominee of the Central and respective state governments.<\/li>\n<li>For shortlisting of judges for the Supreme Court and Chief Justices of High Courts, this committee should include a nominee of the Centre.\n<ul>\n<li>At present, the names are vetted by the Collegium, either of the High Courts or the Supreme Court, which comprises senior judges.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The committee will, in turn, make its recommendations to the High Court or Supreme Court Collegium as the case may be.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The final decision will still vest with the Collegium.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1)\u00a0<\/strong><strong>What are the eligibility criteria for a person to be appointed as a judge of Supreme Court of India?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>\u00a0For a person to become a judge of Supreme Court he must be a citizen of India, and<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Must have 5 years of experience as a judge in the High Court; or<\/li>\n<li>must have 10 years of experience as an advocate in High Court; or\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>is in the opinion of the president, a distinguished Jurist.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)<\/strong><strong>\u00a0What is 99<sup>th<\/sup> Constitutional Amendment Act?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>\u00a0The Ninety-ninth Amendment of the Constitution of India, officially known as The Constitution (Ninety-ninth Amendment) Act, 2014, formed a National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) &#8211; an independent commission to appoint judges to the Supreme Court and high courts to replace the collegium system.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/collegium-rejig-its-precise-follow-up-action-on-supreme-court-direction-in-njac-ruling-says-law-minister-kiren-rijiju\/article66382597.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Law Minister Kiren Rijiju seeks government nominees in court collegiums, writes to CJI<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-law\/law-minister-kiren-rijiju-suggestion-to-cji-on-mop-the-context-and-background-8385925\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian Express<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.constitutionofindia.net\/constitution_of_india\/the_union\/articles\/Article%20124\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Constitution of India<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Collegium of the SC Judges make recommendations for appointments to the apex court and High Courts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}