The Supreme Court collegium is planning to pause recommending family members of sitting or former constitutional court judges as high court judges, according to a report by Times of India.
The proposal reportedly found favour with some and has since gained traction for a debate among other members of the collegium, which comprises CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justices B R Gavai, Surya Kant, Hrishikesh Roy and A S Oka.
The move is aimed at doing away with the perception that these lawyers get priority over first-generation lawyers in the judge selection process.
In 2015, a five-judge constitution bench of the top court struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) which was brought in unanimously by Parliament. The move was aimed at replacing the collegium system created through two judgments of the SC to wrest control of selection of people for appointment as HC and SC judges. Since then, the top court has tried to infuse a certain degree of transparency in the judge selection mechanism.
This has not been enough to still the disquiet, which was on open
According to TOI, many felt the judges-selecting-judges system encouraged the practice of “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” , It was also believed to be staining the process as many children of sitting or former constitutional court judges were recommended for appointment as HC judges. An advocate had claimed during the NJAC hearing that 50% of HC judges had close relatives as former or sitting constitutional court judges, according to TOI.
The collegium also started interacting with lawyers and judicial officers, recommended by HC collegiums for appointment as HC judges, to test their suitability and assess their capability and calibre.
The top three judges interacted with those recommended for appointment as judges of Allahabad, Bombay and Rajasthan HCs and forwarded the names they deemed to be eligible for appointment as HC judges to the Centre on December 22, according to the TOI report.
Earlier, the collegium solely relied on the detailed biodata of lawyers and judicial officers submitted by HC collegiums, intelligence reports on their antecedents, as well as opinions of governors and CMs concerned. The personal interaction with recommended candidates helped in judging first-hand their demeanour and suitability for appointment as judges, SC insiders told TOI.
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