In A First, Supreme Court Collegium Introduces Procedure To Scrutinise Judgments Of HC Judges & Assess Relative Merit For Elevation

The statement released by the Supreme Court collegium today has revealed an interesting fact - that the collegium has introduced a procedure for scrutinising the judgments authored by High Court judges who are under consideration for elevation to the Supreme Court. The collegium has also introduced a procedure to assess the relative merit of candidates on an objective criteria. However, the exact parameters of the objective criteria is not known.

This procedure was introduced for the first time in the collegium meeting held on September 26 under the leadership of Chief Justice of India UU Lalit. The name of Justice Dipankar Dutta, the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, was recommended for the elevation in the September 26 meeting.

The names of ten other judges were also being considered by the collegium. However, their consideration was deferred till September 30, as certain members of the collegium demanded more judgments of the candidates. Therefore, the meeting was postponed to September 30, 2022 and more judgments were circulated.

"Though the procedure of circulating the judgments of the prospective candidates and making an objective assessment of their relative merit was introduced for the first time in the meeting held on September 26, 2022 and though the name of Mr. Justice Dipankar Dutta was also cleared in that meeting, a demand was raised by some of the members of the Collegium that we should have more judgments of the other candidates. Therefore, the meeting was postponed to September 30, 2022 and more judgments were circulated".

However, the meeting scheduled on September 30 at 4.30 PM could not take place as Justice DY Chandrachud did not attend the same. Later, CJI Lalit wrote letters to the collegium members seeking their views on the proposals. While Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph wrote back to the CJI approving the proposals, Justices Chandrachud and S Abdul Nazeer objected to the procedure of selecting judges through circulation of letters.

Meanwhile, on October 7, the Union Law Minister wrote to CJI Lalit requesting him to name his successor who will take over as the Chief Justice of India from November 9, 2022. In the light of the letter of the Union Law Minister, the collegium decided to close the September 30 meeting. The statement was released today to explain the circumstances relating to the September 30 meeting.

"In the circumstances, no further steps need be taken and the unfinished work in the meeting called for September 30, 2022 is closed without there being any further deliberation. The meeting dated September 30, 2022 stands discharged", the statement released today stated.