SC Collegium

Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit Saturday said the collegium was the "ideal system" for appointment of judges to the top court and high courts in the country. His comments come in the backdrop of Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju raising questions over the collegium system. Justice Lalit, who demitted office as the 49th CJI on November 8, 2022, also said judiciary was completely independent of the executive and while the Supreme Court was "fantastic", there is "tremendous area for improvement". Speaking at the India Today Conclave, Justice Lalit emphasised that the collegium system enables selection of judges by a body which is reviewing performances at the "grass-root" and the process of recommendation by the apex court body is through a consultative route. While recommending a judge, not only is performance but the opinion of other judges as well as IB report is also considered in the process and a new regime of appointment can only be "put in place in a manner

Former CJI Lalit said that they can be infirmities as some recommendations get dropped

The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Wednesday recommended to the Centre the names of 20 additional judges for making them permanent judges in high courts of Allahabad, Mumbai, Madras and Delhi. Of the 20 names, the maximum 10 have been recommended for the Allahabad HC by the three-member Collegium, also comprising justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph. The Collegiums recommended five for the Madras High Court, four for the Bombay High Court and one for the Delhi High Court. "The Collegium resolves to recommend that S/Shri Justices (1) Chandra Kumar Rai, (2) Krishan Pahal, (3) Sameer Jain, (4) Ashutosh Srivastava, (5) Subhash Vidyarthi, (6) Brij Raj Singh, (7) Shree Prakash Singh, (8) Vikas Budhwar, (9) Om Prakash Tripathi, and (10) Vikram D. Chauhan, Additional Judges, be appointed as Permanent Judges of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad against the existing vacancies," a resolution uploaded on the apex court website said. In .

Out of the 10 proposals, the SC Collegium has reiterated its recommendation in three cases

The Centre on Friday assured the Supreme Court that the Collegium's recommendation for the appointment of five judges in the apex court will be cleared soon. Attorney General R Venkataramani told a bench of Justices S K Kaul and A S Oka that warrant of appointments of these five names is expected to be issued soon. The bench expressed displeasure over the delay by the Centre in clearing recommendations for transfer of high court judges, saying "it is a very, very serious issue". "Don't make us take a stand which will be very uncomfortable," the bench observed. The apex court, which was hearing a matter related to the Centre's alleged delay in clearing names recommended by the Collegium for appointment as judges to the Supreme Court and high courts, has posted it for further hearing on February 13 The Collegium on December 13 last year recommended five judges for elevation to the apex court -- Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal, Patna High Court Chief Justice Sanjay

This comes after Kiren Rijiju criticized the SC's collegium system of seeking RAW and IB inputs on the appointment of judges in the High Courts

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee objected to the Centre's proposal for the inclusion of govt nominees in the collegium system on appointments to the higher judiciary

Kiren Rijiju has suggested the inclusion of the Centre's representatives in the SC collegium and of the state government in the HC collegiums

Dhankhar's virtual censure of the judiciary had come following the apex court's remarks on the issue of the collegium system

Amid a renewed attack mounted by the government on the collegium system of appointing members to the higher judiciary, a "record" 138 judges were appointed to the various high courts this year. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, who has been questioning the collegium system, dubbed it as being "alien" to the Constitution. He also said that the issue of vacancies and appointments in the higher judiciary would continue to linger till such time a new system is created for the same. Seeking to overturn the collegium system, Parliament had passed - with near unanimity - the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act which was given constitutional status. The government brought into force the Constitution (Ninety-Ninth Amendment) Act, 2014 and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014 on April 13, 2015. However, both the Acts were challenged in the Supreme Court which eventually declared both the laws as unconstitutional and void on October 16, 2015. After the judgment, the ..

The government has been receiving representations from "diverse sources" on lack of transparency, objectivity and social diversity in the collegium system of appointment of Supreme Court and high court judges with the request to improve the mechanism, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday. In a written reply, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju also said the government has sent suggestions for supplementing the Memorandum of Procedure for appointment of judges to the high courts and Supreme Court. MoP is a document which guides the appointment and transfer of judges in the higher judiciary. He recalled that in a bid to make the collegium system of appointments of judges "more broad-based, transparent, accountable and bringing objectivity in the system", the government brought into force the Constitution (Ninety-Ninth Amendment) Act, 2014 and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014 on April 13, 2015. However, both the Acts were challenged in the Supreme Court which eventually .

Executive and judiciary need to find common ground

'Whatever was discussed in the collegium was not required to be put out in the public domain, that too under the RTI Act'

Amid the ongoing friction between the Centre and the judiciary on the issue of appointment of judges, the Supreme Court on Thursday told the Centre that collegium system is the "law of the land"

In his maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha on December 7 and at a public event last week, vice president Jagdeep Dhankar criticised the Supreme Court's judgement overturning the NJAC

The Supreme Court said on Friday the existing collegium system should not be derailed on the basis of statements of "some busybody", asserting the top court is one of the most transparent institutions. Amid divisions within the judiciary and its festering dispute with the government over the system under which existing judges appoint judges to constitutional courts, it said it does not want to comment on what a few former apex court judges, who were once members of the Supreme Court collegium, are now saying about the mechanism. A bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said, "Nowadays, it has become a fashion to comment upon earlier decisions (of the collegium) made when they (former judges) were part of the collegium. We don't want to say anything on their comments". The top court was hearing a petition by RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj against the Delhi High Court order dismissing her plea seeking the agenda of the Supreme Court collegium's meeting held on December 12, 2018 when

The Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena on Thursday said Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has crossed the Laxman Resha by commenting on the collegium system of appointment of judges, and he should resign. An editorial in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana' alleged that the Narendra Modi government wants to control all important institutions including the judiciary. It wants people of its ideology in the judiciary and is trying to destroy democracy, Parliament and opposition leaders. For this, the government wants its people in the high courts, Supreme Court and also among prosecutors, it said. Rijiju recently called as "opaque" the present Supreme Court collegium system through which judges are appointed. "The basic fault with the present collegium system is that the judges are recommending those colleagues whom they know. Obviously, they would not recommend a judge they do not know," Rijiju had said. The Sena mouthpiece said it was clear that the law minister had crossed the

Last year, the Collegium headed by then Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had recommended the elevation of Saurabh Kirpal

A Bench of Justices S K Kaul and A S Oka said the apex court had laid down the timelines within which the appointment process had to be completed

The Supreme Court on Monday took strong exception to Law Minister Kiren Rijiju's recent comment on the collegium system of appointing judges, saying it should not have happened