#18: Collegium System | Explained
All you need to know about Indian Higher Judiciary Appointments system
Collegium System | Supreme Court/High Court
This blog will teach you everything you need to know about the collegium system for the UPSC CSE exam! Save it to your notes. 📚
What's it? 🤔
- A system to appoint the judges of High Court and Supreme Court.
- Result of 3 prominent cases aka First, Second and Third Judges Cases
- No mention of Collegium in the constitution
What are the 3 famous cases? ⚖️
1. First Judges Case 1981☝️
- Seven judge bench decision
- aka SP Gupta v/s Union of India
- Executive is deciding authority
- Executive can disagree with CJI for "cogent reasons"
2. Second Judges Case 1993✌️
- Nine judge bench decision
- reversed the 1981 verdict
- Interpreted "consultation" as "concurrence" of CJI
- CJI to make decision with a collegium including 2 senior most judges
3. Third Judges Case 1998👌
- President KR Narayanan sought opinion u/A 143
- SC reiterated the 1993 judgement
- Collegium extended to include 4 senior most judges now
- gave legal backing to the current system of appointing judges
Functioning 💼
1. CJI + 4 senior most judges to recommend
- appointment of judges to SC and Chief Justice of HC
- the transfer of HC judges
2. CJI + 2 senior most judges to recommend appointment of judges to HC
What else? 😃
- Objective: To ensure that best available talent is brought to the SC Bench.
- If none of the 4 senior most is to be CJI, the collegium can have next CJI as special invitee (that makes it a 6 member body)
- Justice Chandrachud led collegium will be a 6 member body
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