{"id":117524,"date":"2021-07-09T20:14:01","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T14:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=117524"},"modified":"2021-07-09T20:14:01","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T14:44:01","slug":"the-judicious-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-judicious-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"The judicious choice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/judges-appointment-what-is-the-collegium-systems-role-in-protecting-democracy-7395735\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Indian Express<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>: This article emphasises ensuring the independence of the judiciary.<\/p>\n<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Selection of deserving judges is essential to ensure independence of the judiciary. The Collegium must do its best in this task in order to uphold the constitutional spirit and democratic ethos.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is the largest democracy in the world thanks to the sacrifices of millions of freedom fighters.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amongst the constitutional institutions designed to protect democracy, the judiciary occupies a significant place. However, there is little doubt that the judiciary is being challenged, from within and outside.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The judiciary must <\/span><b>shield itself from further erosion of its independence <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and competence by carefully following the law, as declared by the Supreme Court (SC) itself.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Judicial Pronouncements<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Second Judges Case (1993)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The SC held that no appointment of SC or HC judge can be made unless it conforms with the opinion of the Chief Justice of India (CJI).<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Collegium system was devised for recommending the appointments; consisting of the CJI and the four senior-most judges of the SC and high courts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This ensured that the opinion of the CJI<\/span><b>\u00a0is not merely his individual opinion,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but an opinion formed collectively by a body of men at the apex level in the judiciary.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, the decision would <\/span><b>preserve the independence of the judiciary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which is part of the basic structure of the Constitution.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>National Judicial Appointment Commision (NJAC) Case (2016):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 The SC struck down NJAC. It strongly <\/span><b>disapproved of any role for the political executive <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the final selection and appointment of judges.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As per SC, NJAC may generate reciprocity and feelings of payback to the political executive, which would have been disastrous to the independence of the judiciary.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Dismal performance of Judiciary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Candidates lacking in essential attributes have been appointed routinely, which has raised serious questions over the integrity of Collegium members.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sadly, instead of selecting the best from amongst those available, <\/span><b>compromises appear to have been repeatedly made in the past.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As per Justice HR Khanna, one of the new trends in judiciary <\/span><b>is growing tilt in favor of upholding the orders of the Government<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The scenario is pointing towards the compromise of judicial independence, thereby undermining democracy and basic structure of the constitution.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Way Ahead:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Judiciary must realize that there is a heavy burden on its shoulders. It should function in an independent and objective manner.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The judiciary should work to the best of its abilities and in consonance with the constitutional oath. This will help in upholding the rule of law and ensure prudent administration of justice.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Indian Express\u00a0 Relevance: This article emphasises ensuring the independence of the judiciary. Synopsis: Selection of deserving judges is essential to ensure independence of the judiciary. The Collegium must do its best in this task in order to uphold the constitutional spirit and democratic ethos. Background: India is the largest democracy in the world thanks&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-judicious-choice\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The judicious choice<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704955079},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}