Supreme Court rejects plea to review collegium system ruling

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a plea by the National Lawyers’ Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms (NLCJTR) seeking the review of the top court’s 1993 judgement, which had held the Chief Justice of India in the primacy for the appointment and transfer of judges to higher judiciary and had introduced the collegium system for the appointment of judges to higher judiciary.

The nine-judge bench also declined the plea for an open court hearing for the review of 1993 judgement. The bench comprised of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, justice S.A. Bobde, justice N.V. Ramana, justice Arun Mishra, justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, justice R. Banumathi, justice Uday Umesh Lalit, justice A.M. Khanwikar and justice Ashok Bhushan.

Rejecting the plea for the review of 1993 judgement on the grounds its being filed after a delay of more than 9,000 days, the court also dismissed it on the grounds of being devoid of merits as well.

The judges rejected the plea for the reconsideration of 1993 judgement by circulation.

The petitioner - the National Lawyers’ Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms by its review petition had sought declaration that 1993 first judges case judgement was “void”.

The 1993 judgement had held that “No appointment of any judge to the Supreme Court or any high court can be made, unless it is in conformity with the opinion of the Chief Justice of India.”

It had further said that in exceptional cases only, the government citing “strong cogent reasons” could return the collegium recommendation as not suitable for appointment as judge.

However, the 1993 judgement said that if the “strong cogent reasons” cited by the government were not acceptable to the CJI and the other judges of the Supreme Court, who were consulted in the course of making recommendation, the government was obliged to carry out the appointment as a “healthy convention”.

The top court had earlier on November 27, 2018, had dismissed a plea by NLCJTR seeking the recall of October 2015 constitution bench judgement striking down the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) that was brought to replace the collegium system for the appointment of judges to higher judiciary, including – the high courts and the Supreme Court.