Selection process of judges: Regarding the appointment of judges to the High Court and the Supreme Court, there has often been a perception that first generation lawyers are not given importance in the selection process. Instead, people who are second generation lawyers and whose family members are already judges are elevated as judges. Now the initiative to end this notion can come from the collegium.
There may be a major change in the process of selection of judges
According to the report, the collegium will refrain from putting forward the names of people whose family members or relatives are already judges of the High Court or the Supreme Court. If this happens, there will be a big change in the process of selection of judges by the collegium. There are a large number of judges whose family members or relatives have already been associated with the legal profession.
Only a few judges included in the collegium proposed that people should not be nominated whose family members or relatives are already judges. When this was discussed, it also came to light that by taking such a decision some deserving people may be excluded. It was argued in the collegium that these people can earn a good living as successful lawyers. These people will have no dearth of opportunities to earn money. Although this will harm some people, but in the larger interest this decision is not wrong. Such a decision being taken by the collegium itself is significant as a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission in 2015.
The law creating this body for government was passed unanimously by the Parliament, but the Supreme Court put a stay on it. In such a situation, it is now necessary that the Collegium itself brings proposals to improve the appointment process of judges. When the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was struck down by the Supreme Court, a lawyer presented the family argument while presenting his case. He said, ‘People have this feeling that judges select them in the collegium system. It’s like you scratch my back and I scratch yours. It often favors those who have family members already in the judicial system. There are 50 percent judges in the High Court whose family members were already in the court.
