To,
The Honorable Chief Justice of India &
Constitutional Bench headed by Justice JS Khehar on NJAC - Collegium Case WP(C) 13/2015,
Supreme Court of India,
New Delhi.
Respected Sir,
Subject: An opinion cum suggestions to improve collegium system for judicial appointments.
Why we should oppose National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC)?
Democracy is all about distribution of powers, it is constituted as 3 pillars Legislature, Judiciary and Executive. Due to political party system Legislative powers are concentrated in the hands of few party heads. They became as unofficial dictators of democracy, because of this both Legislature and Executive branches are in slavery. Executive branch failed to sustain its independence, due to their nexus and dependency on legislature for their day to day activities. NJAC bill is an attempt to bring Judiciary under their umbrella.
We are thankful to the Supreme Court of India for its historic verdict against NJAC. This verdict rescued the Judiciary from falling into the hands of Legislatures (Politicians), and stood tall to protect its autonomous status. Lot of criticism prevailed all these days due to lack of transparency and accountability in the appointment of Judges through Collegium system. SC's Constitutional bench willingness to accept suggestion from everyone to fix the Collegium, is a great and correct thing to do. It's my pleasure to give some below suggestions to help fix the Democratic system for good. Not only just the Collegium but entire Judiciary needs a makeover.
Autonomous Status:
As we all know Judiciary is an autonomous body, but still not independent enough to raise its finances and do the investigations. Our Legislature branch failed to give complete autonomy to the Judiciary. All State High courts should raise their funds by imposing a Judicial State Tax at state level and its state governments will be responsible to collect and transfer those taxes those respective state high courts. For Supreme Court, Central government should be responsible to collect and give Judicial Central Tax. CAG should audit the judicial expenditure. CAG, CBI and Election commission also deserve an autonomous status. CBI should have a separate wing to carry out investigations on behalf of Supreme Court, and should only report directly to the SC, but not to anyone else.
Minimum Qualification for Judges and PP's:
Minimum qualification to become Judge or Public Prosecutor (PP) should be a Masters in Law (ML) degree and minimum 5 years of law practice, and must be recruited only through a public service commission in lower courts.
Process to select High Court Judges:
To become High Court Judge, such person should have worked as Judge in lower court for at least 15 years. Interested candidates should apply to the State High Court registrar with their bio data along with 10 of their exemplary judgments, to prove their eligibility on or before 15th of Jan every year. Registry should add the statistics year wise how many cases were heard by them and how many cases were resolved. Chief Justice of that state will nominate 1/3rd of state judges as State Judges Collegium of that state and they will select and prepare the list of judges equivalent to the number of judges to that corresponding state by 15th of February every year. State Judges Collegium have a right to seek state intelligence report about the candidates to make an assessment.
SC should find out how many number of Judge's positions that are going to available by the end of June of for each current year (consider this figure as “X”) and the assessment for the same should be ready by the end of Feb of that year. Every High Court will have coefficient, which is derived from number of Judges in that High Court divided by total number of Judges in all High Courts. So total 2X plus few number of candidates should be selected for review from each high court. Coefficient of that high court multiplied by 2X should be rounded to the next highest number or at least one of the candidates should be selected from the top of each high court list for review by 15th March. This probable list will be sent to each high court Chief Justice for review, they should pick 1.5X (should be rounded to the next highest number) number of candidates from that list and should be sent to the Registrar of the Supreme Court of India. The SC registry should consolidate the list and publish it on 30th March. Candidates can withdraw their candidature by 5th April if they choose. On 6th April SC registry should order the CBI to enquire on the list of candidates. CBI should submit its report by 30th April.
Chief Justice of India should select the members of SC State Judges Collegium with 1/3rd of the SC judges and remaining 2/3rd of the SC judges as members of SC Judges Collegium by 5th April. The State Judges Collegium should sit in the 1st week of summer vacation and should select 1.2X candidates. Out of this list CJI should select the X number of judges and that list should be sent to the President of India for final approval. In case the President of India want to reject any candidate, The President should seek the CJI's inputs and then only the President should reject the candidate with an appropriate reason. The selected Judges should join in 1st week of July.
Process to select Supreme Court Judges:
In order to become as Supreme Court Judge, candidate should be a high court judge for 15 years, Chief Justice of high court should not be eligible to apply. Interested candidates should apply to the State registrar with their bio data along with 10 of their exemplary judgments as high court judge, to prove their eligibility on or before 15th of Jan each year. Registry should add the statistics by the end of February. The statistics should be based on how many cases were heard by them and how many cases were resolved with average number of days the case was heard year wise. Chief Justice of that state will short list the candidates and bring it down to no more than 1/3th of that state high court number of judges. And sends that list to SC Registrar by end of March. Chief Justice of that state have a right to seek state intelligence report about the candidates to make an assessment.
SC should find out how many number of SC Judge's positions which are going to available by the end of June of each current year (consider this figure as “Y”)and this assessment should be ready by the end of March that year. Every High Court should have coefficient, which is derived from Number of Judges in that High Court divided by total number of Judges in all High Courts.
Total 3Y plus few number of candidates should be selected by SC Registry for review, from each high court coefficient of that high court multiplied by the 3Y rounded to the next highest number or at least one of candidate should be selected from the top of each high courts list for review. The SC registry should consolidate the list and publish it by 15th April, Candidates can with draw their candidature by 20th April if they choose. On 21st April SC registry should order the CBI enquiry on the list of candidates. CBI should submit its report by 30th April. The consolidated list should be sent to SC Judges Collegium for its review. It will bring down the number to 1.5Y. Out of this list Chief Justice of India should select the Y number of high court judges and that list should be sent to the President of India for final approval. In case the President of India want to reject any candidate, The President should seek the CJI's inputs and then only the President should reject the candidate with an appropriate reason. The selected Judges should join SC in 1st week of July.
Other Selections:
Chief Justice of India and Chief Justice of High Court should be nominated according to their seniority, which is same as per current nominating system. All other Judicial appointees of state and central government representatives such as Attorney General, Government Pleaders / Prosecutors and PP's should be appointed through the respective State Judges Collegium or by SC Judges Collegium. All these appointees aren't eligible to become SC Judges.
Judge's Wages & Transfers:
High Court Judges should be transferred in between the high court's after finishing 5 years of service, Judges with 50 plus years of age should be exempted from transfers. SC Registry should prepare the list of judges to be transferred every year and submit it to SC Judges Collegium to take transfers. National Pay Commission appointed by the government of India should fix the pay structure and perks for judiciary, which will be constituted every 5 years by the Parliament.
Example:
Required number of High Court Judges (X) 45
Probable list of candidates 2X plus 105 selected from 604
Each high court Chief Justice will selects (1.5X) 68 out of 105
SC State Judges Collegium selects (1.2X) 54 out of 68
Chief Justice of India selects 45 out of 54
Required number of Supreme Court Judges (Y) 6
Probable list of candidates 3Y plus 32 selected from 201
SC Judges Collegium selects (1.5Y) 9 out of 32
Chief Justice of India selects 6 out of 9
Vande mataram Thanking You Vishnu Alluri
The Honorable Chief Justice of India &
Constitutional Bench headed by Justice JS Khehar on NJAC - Collegium Case WP(C) 13/2015,
Supreme Court of India,
New Delhi.
Respected Sir,
Subject: An opinion cum suggestions to improve collegium system for judicial appointments.
Why we should oppose National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC)?
Democracy is all about distribution of powers, it is constituted as 3 pillars Legislature, Judiciary and Executive. Due to political party system Legislative powers are concentrated in the hands of few party heads. They became as unofficial dictators of democracy, because of this both Legislature and Executive branches are in slavery. Executive branch failed to sustain its independence, due to their nexus and dependency on legislature for their day to day activities. NJAC bill is an attempt to bring Judiciary under their umbrella.
We are thankful to the Supreme Court of India for its historic verdict against NJAC. This verdict rescued the Judiciary from falling into the hands of Legislatures (Politicians), and stood tall to protect its autonomous status. Lot of criticism prevailed all these days due to lack of transparency and accountability in the appointment of Judges through Collegium system. SC's Constitutional bench willingness to accept suggestion from everyone to fix the Collegium, is a great and correct thing to do. It's my pleasure to give some below suggestions to help fix the Democratic system for good. Not only just the Collegium but entire Judiciary needs a makeover.
Autonomous Status:
As we all know Judiciary is an autonomous body, but still not independent enough to raise its finances and do the investigations. Our Legislature branch failed to give complete autonomy to the Judiciary. All State High courts should raise their funds by imposing a Judicial State Tax at state level and its state governments will be responsible to collect and transfer those taxes those respective state high courts. For Supreme Court, Central government should be responsible to collect and give Judicial Central Tax. CAG should audit the judicial expenditure. CAG, CBI and Election commission also deserve an autonomous status. CBI should have a separate wing to carry out investigations on behalf of Supreme Court, and should only report directly to the SC, but not to anyone else.
Minimum Qualification for Judges and PP's:
Minimum qualification to become Judge or Public Prosecutor (PP) should be a Masters in Law (ML) degree and minimum 5 years of law practice, and must be recruited only through a public service commission in lower courts.
Process to select High Court Judges:
To become High Court Judge, such person should have worked as Judge in lower court for at least 15 years. Interested candidates should apply to the State High Court registrar with their bio data along with 10 of their exemplary judgments, to prove their eligibility on or before 15th of Jan every year. Registry should add the statistics year wise how many cases were heard by them and how many cases were resolved. Chief Justice of that state will nominate 1/3rd of state judges as State Judges Collegium of that state and they will select and prepare the list of judges equivalent to the number of judges to that corresponding state by 15th of February every year. State Judges Collegium have a right to seek state intelligence report about the candidates to make an assessment.
SC should find out how many number of Judge's positions that are going to available by the end of June of for each current year (consider this figure as “X”) and the assessment for the same should be ready by the end of Feb of that year. Every High Court will have coefficient, which is derived from number of Judges in that High Court divided by total number of Judges in all High Courts. So total 2X plus few number of candidates should be selected for review from each high court. Coefficient of that high court multiplied by 2X should be rounded to the next highest number or at least one of the candidates should be selected from the top of each high court list for review by 15th March. This probable list will be sent to each high court Chief Justice for review, they should pick 1.5X (should be rounded to the next highest number) number of candidates from that list and should be sent to the Registrar of the Supreme Court of India. The SC registry should consolidate the list and publish it on 30th March. Candidates can withdraw their candidature by 5th April if they choose. On 6th April SC registry should order the CBI to enquire on the list of candidates. CBI should submit its report by 30th April.
Chief Justice of India should select the members of SC State Judges Collegium with 1/3rd of the SC judges and remaining 2/3rd of the SC judges as members of SC Judges Collegium by 5th April. The State Judges Collegium should sit in the 1st week of summer vacation and should select 1.2X candidates. Out of this list CJI should select the X number of judges and that list should be sent to the President of India for final approval. In case the President of India want to reject any candidate, The President should seek the CJI's inputs and then only the President should reject the candidate with an appropriate reason. The selected Judges should join in 1st week of July.
Process to select Supreme Court Judges:
In order to become as Supreme Court Judge, candidate should be a high court judge for 15 years, Chief Justice of high court should not be eligible to apply. Interested candidates should apply to the State registrar with their bio data along with 10 of their exemplary judgments as high court judge, to prove their eligibility on or before 15th of Jan each year. Registry should add the statistics by the end of February. The statistics should be based on how many cases were heard by them and how many cases were resolved with average number of days the case was heard year wise. Chief Justice of that state will short list the candidates and bring it down to no more than 1/3th of that state high court number of judges. And sends that list to SC Registrar by end of March. Chief Justice of that state have a right to seek state intelligence report about the candidates to make an assessment.
SC should find out how many number of SC Judge's positions which are going to available by the end of June of each current year (consider this figure as “Y”)and this assessment should be ready by the end of March that year. Every High Court should have coefficient, which is derived from Number of Judges in that High Court divided by total number of Judges in all High Courts.
Total 3Y plus few number of candidates should be selected by SC Registry for review, from each high court coefficient of that high court multiplied by the 3Y rounded to the next highest number or at least one of candidate should be selected from the top of each high courts list for review. The SC registry should consolidate the list and publish it by 15th April, Candidates can with draw their candidature by 20th April if they choose. On 21st April SC registry should order the CBI enquiry on the list of candidates. CBI should submit its report by 30th April. The consolidated list should be sent to SC Judges Collegium for its review. It will bring down the number to 1.5Y. Out of this list Chief Justice of India should select the Y number of high court judges and that list should be sent to the President of India for final approval. In case the President of India want to reject any candidate, The President should seek the CJI's inputs and then only the President should reject the candidate with an appropriate reason. The selected Judges should join SC in 1st week of July.
Other Selections:
Chief Justice of India and Chief Justice of High Court should be nominated according to their seniority, which is same as per current nominating system. All other Judicial appointees of state and central government representatives such as Attorney General, Government Pleaders / Prosecutors and PP's should be appointed through the respective State Judges Collegium or by SC Judges Collegium. All these appointees aren't eligible to become SC Judges.
Judge's Wages & Transfers:
High Court Judges should be transferred in between the high court's after finishing 5 years of service, Judges with 50 plus years of age should be exempted from transfers. SC Registry should prepare the list of judges to be transferred every year and submit it to SC Judges Collegium to take transfers. National Pay Commission appointed by the government of India should fix the pay structure and perks for judiciary, which will be constituted every 5 years by the Parliament.
Example:
Required number of High Court Judges (X) 45
Probable list of candidates 2X plus 105 selected from 604
Each high court Chief Justice will selects (1.5X) 68 out of 105
SC State Judges Collegium selects (1.2X) 54 out of 68
Chief Justice of India selects 45 out of 54
Required number of Supreme Court Judges (Y) 6
Probable list of candidates 3Y plus 32 selected from 201
SC Judges Collegium selects (1.5Y) 9 out of 32
Chief Justice of India selects 6 out of 9
Vande mataram Thanking You Vishnu Alluri
