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Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association v. Union of India

Writ Petition (Civil) · Neutral citation not assigned (Writ Petition (Civil) No. 13 of 2015, order of 16 December 2015)Decided 16 Dec 2015
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 13 of 2015
Justice J.S. Khehar · Justice J. Chelameswar · Justice Madan B. Lokur · Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel

Background

After its main judgment in this batch on 16 October 2015, the Court asked for suggestions on improving the collegium system that picks judges. Lawyers, the Bar Council of India and the Attorney General made submissions in November 2015; a committee compiled about 11,500 pages of suggestions. The Attorney General then argued that drawing up the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) is an executive task that the Court should not take over.

Decision Breakdown

The Court agreed that the Government of India should finalise the existing MoP, in consultation with the Chief Justice of India (CJI), as had been the practice under the Second Judges case. The CJI is to decide on the unanimous view of the collegium of the four senior-most puisne judges. The Court listed broad suggestions the MoP may cover: eligibility criteria (such as minimum age), publishing the criteria and procedure on court and Department of Justice websites, recording minutes of collegium discussions including dissenting views while keeping them confidential, a Secretariat for each High Court and the Supreme Court, a mechanism for complaints against candidates, and interaction with the recommended candidates. The Court stressed these are only broad suggestions to supplement the MoP and implement the Second and Third Judges cases faithfully. All the matters in the batch were then disposed of.

Lesson Learnt

Appointments of judges follow a written procedure that the Government must finalise with the CJI, so changes to it are made through consultation rather than by the Court alone. The Court's guidance points to transparency, published criteria and a complaints process as the expected features of that procedure.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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