Profile
Settings
Refer your friends
Sign out
Why in news?
SC declines the petition to end the Collegium System.
More about news:
- The Supreme Court Registry cited that the Collegium system has already been upheld by the Supreme Court, while the NJAC was struck down as unconstitutional in 2015.
- According to the SC, the petition merely “replicated” matters that had already been decided.
- The petition called Collegium a synonym for nepotism and favoritism.
- Articles 124(2) and 217 of the Indian Constitution deal with the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts.
Collegium System:
- Collegium is a system under which appointments and transfers of judges are decided by a forum of the Chief Justice of India and the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court.
- It came into existence by a series of SC judgments, called the three-judge cases.
- First Judges Case (1981): It declared that the primacy of the CJI’s recommendation on judicial appointments.
- Second Judges Case (1993): It added that it was not the CJI’s individual opinion, but an institutional opinion formed in consultation with the two senior-most judges in the SC.
- Third Judges Case (1998): SC expanded the Collegium to a five-member body, comprising the CJI and four of his senior-most colleagues.
- SC collegium is headed by the CJI (Chief Justice of India) and comprises four other senior most judges of the court.
- A High Court collegium is led by the incumbent Chief Justice and two other senior judges of that court.
National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC):
- It was proposed as a substitute for the Collegium system with the intention of increasing accountability and openness in judicial appointments.
- Established by the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2014.
- In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that the NJAC Act was unconstitutional and invalidated it.
