Q. Consider the following statements about the collegium system in India:
1. Collegium has no power with respect to the transfer of High court judges.
2. The system does not recognize the reservation for underprivileged sections of society while appointing the judges.
3. The system is not part of the original constitution, but it has just evolved through the judgements of the Supreme court.
How many of the above given statements are correct?
Exp) Option b is the correct answer
Statement 1 is incorrect: The collegium system decides on both the appointment and transfer of judges, thus plays a major role in reducing the interference of the executive. The collegium system makes recommendations for the candidates to be appointed as Supreme Court and High Court judges to the President.
Statement 2 is correct: It is true that the appointment made by the Collegium system does not recognize any affirmative action or reservation policy. The lack of representation of disadvantaged groups such as OBCs/SCs and STs and Women are one of the major criticisms levelled against the Indian Judiciary. For instance, so far, there has been just one judge from the ST community and no women CJI so far.
Statement 3 is correct: Collegium system is not part of the original constitution, and this is one of the major criticisms levelled against collegium. The Collegium system is a judicial innovation through a series of three cases (happened in 1981,1993 and 1998) popularly known as three judge cases.
| Important Tips The Supreme court collegium system is chaired by the Chief Justice of India along with four senior-most Supreme Court judges. The High court collegium is chaired by the Chief Justice and the two senior-most judges of the concerned high court, and it sends its judicial appointments recommendation to the Supreme Court Collegium |
