{"id":370790,"date":"2026-09-01T16:15:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=370790"},"modified":"2026-09-01T16:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:45:26","slug":"distinguished-jurist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/distinguished-jurist\/","title":{"rendered":"Distinguished Jurist"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"content-box-green\">\n<p><strong>News:<\/strong> Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan called the unused provision for appointing a \u201cdistinguished jurist\u201d to the Supreme Court an \u201cunused mandate\u201d needing attention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"red-h2-box\">About Distinguished Jurist<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A \u201c<strong>distinguished jurist<\/strong>\u201d is <strong>not specifically defined <\/strong>in the<strong> Constitution.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It is <strong>generally understood<\/strong> as a <strong>person engaged in serious work in legal practice, teaching, or research, even without courtroom experience.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Constitutional Provisions:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Article 124(3):<\/strong> A <strong>citizen of India<\/strong> can be <strong>appointed<\/strong> as a <strong>Supreme Court judge<\/strong> if they <strong>have been a High Court judge for five years,<\/strong> an <strong>advocate for ten years<\/strong>, or are a \u201c<strong>distinguished jurist\u201d in the President\u2019s opinion.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Distinguished jurist <\/strong>route has <strong>never been used.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Article 217:<\/strong> The <strong>42nd Constitutional Amendment<\/strong> inserted a provision <strong>allowing a \u201cdistinguished jurist\u201d to<\/strong> be considered for <strong>appointment as a High Court judge.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>This provision <strong>was later omitted by the 44th Constitutional Amendment.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Constituent Assembly Background:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>H. V. Kamath<\/strong> <strong>proposed the provision<\/strong> so that candidates would not be limited to judges and advocates.<\/li>\n<li><strong>M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar supported<\/strong> bringing legal scholars into the judiciary because <strong>practising lawyers may have limited exposure to constitutional problems.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>B. R. Ambedkar did not oppose the idea<\/strong> but raised a <strong>concern about the word \u201cdistinguished\u201d.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pros:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Specialised knowledge:<\/strong> Distinguished jurists <strong>can bring research-based critical thinking<\/strong> and <strong>specialised legal knowledge to the judiciary.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Diverse perspectives:<\/strong> Their participation <strong>can diversify the Bench<\/strong> and <strong>strengthen judicial discourse and decision-making.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Public law expertise:<\/strong> They may be <strong>better placed to address public law issues<\/strong> without being limited by narrow technicalities.<\/li>\n<li><strong data-start=\"4868\" data-end=\"4897\">International Experience:<\/strong> Countries such as the <strong data-start=\"4920\" data-end=\"4944\">US, Poland and Spain<\/strong> have benefited from appointing <strong data-start=\"4976\" data-end=\"4997\">jurists as judges<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cons:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"358\" data-end=\"475\"><strong>Lack of Courtroom Experience: <\/strong>Distinguished jurists <strong>may lack courtroom experience and procedural knowledge.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li data-start=\"476\" data-end=\"658\"><strong data-start=\"3466\" data-end=\"3495\">Bar Council Restrictions:<\/strong> Bar Council rules generally prevent <strong data-start=\"3532\" data-end=\"3578\">full-time law teachers from practising law<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"4075\" data-end=\"4292\"><strong>Perceived Lack of Academic Depth: <\/strong>Justice Ujjal Bhuyan observed that the <strong>Central Government and later the collegium may have felt that there was not enough depth in Indian academia for such appointments.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan called the unused provision for appointing a \u201cdistinguished jurist\u201d to the Supreme Court an \u201cunused mandate\u201d needing attention. About Distinguished Jurist A \u201cdistinguished jurist\u201d is not specifically defined in the Constitution. It is generally understood as a person engaged in serious work in legal practice, teaching, or research,&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/distinguished-jurist\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Distinguished Jurist<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1760,12039],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-370790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-polity-and-nation","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370790","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\/10401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}