With SC reforms stuck in time warp, it would bode well for collegium to finalise 'Memorandum of Procedure' soon
Reforms to judicial appointments in India seem to be stuck in a time warp. The judges who invalidated the NJAC were not wholly unaware of that fact, considering how they directed the Central Government to revise the Memorandum Showing the Procedure for Appointment of the Chief Justice of India and Judges of the Supreme Court of India so as to improve the working of the collegium system. The problem If outgoing Chief Justice of India SA Bobde retires without ensuring any appointment to the Supreme Court, his tenure would have exemplified all the major flaws that ail the working of the collegium. The concern regarding when an appointment needs to be made is only ancillary — para 3 of the MoP states that “Whenever a vacancy is expected to arise in the office of a Judge of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of India will initiate proposal….” The absence of a stipulated time period within which a recommendation must be made belies the reality of the present situation — that the last appointments to the Supreme Court were made in 2019, and the Court is working at a strength of twenty-nine, five short of the sanctioned strength of thirty-four. In his book, titled “The Informal Constitution: Unwritten Criteria in Selecting Judges for the Supreme Court of India”, Dr Abhinav Chandrachud discusses the existence of geographic and demographic diversity as criteria in making judicial appointments.
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