The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has formally addressed the Chief Justice of India and the Law Minister, emphasizing the critical need for a clear, fair, and balanced system for appointing judges to both the Supreme Court and High Courts.
This influential organization of top court lawyers, led by President Vikas Singh, stressed the immediate necessity to finalize the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for judicial appointments. This crucial framework has remained incomplete since 2015, when the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) law was invalidated.
For years, various drafts of the MoP have been exchanged between the Supreme Court Collegium and the Law Ministry, leading to a standstill. While the government claims it awaits further input from the Collegium, the latter asserts it submitted its definitive stance back in March 2017.
The SCBA’s urgent plea to break this decade-long deadlock between the government and the Supreme Court over judicial appointments, and to enhance transparency, comes in the wake of recent controversies. These incidents include serious allegations against High Court judges, involving claims of undisclosed cash and public display of divisive remarks.
The association is calling for immediate and thorough rectifications to the Collegium system’s inherent structural weaknesses, all while rigorously safeguarding judicial independence.
This letter holds considerable weight, particularly because it marks a shift from past stances. A decade ago, Supreme Court lawyers, specifically the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association, championed the Collegium system against the NJAC. Now, a different prominent association of apex court lawyers is itself demanding crucial reforms to the very system they once defended.
The SCBA explicitly attributes the concerning lack of representation for women and individuals from varied backgrounds on the benches of India’s constitutional courts directly to the Collegium system.
Citing statistics from February 2024, the SCBA highlighted that women comprise a mere 9.5% of High Court judges and a striking 2.94% in the Supreme Court. This stark disparity, they argue, reveals a systemic exclusion where an assumed ‘meritocracy’ often conceals a problematic dependence on informal connections and preferential treatment.
To address these issues, the SCBA has proposed several reforms for the MoP. These include establishing permanent secretariats in all High Courts and the Supreme Court to meticulously manage candidate data, track vacancies, and preserve institutional knowledge. Furthermore, they recommend implementing a strong grievance redressal system and codifying clear, verifiable, and objective eligibility criteria for judicial appointments, which must be publicly accessible.