Reference is salutary

The reference by a Division Bench of the Supreme Court to the Chief Justice of India -a PIL entitled Suraz India Trust vs Union of India and Anr- to constitute an appropriate larger bench to revisit the extant collegium system of appointment of judges in higher judiciary is apt and laudable. The present collegium system was put in place in the year 1993 through a ruling of nine-judge Bench in a case titled SC Advocates on Record Association versus Union of India and it was further reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in the case of Special Reference No.1 of 1998. However, it has raised the hackles of different sections of the civil society from its very inception. More importantly, the Law Commission of India in its 214th and 230th Reports has also recommended the reconsideration of the collegium system. It has suggested two alternatives. One is to seek a reconsideration of the abovee cited cases before the Hon’ble Supreme Court. Other is to enact a law to restore the primacy of Chief Justice of India and power of the executive to make the appointments.
However, it is no gainsaid to emphasize that every individual and institution in the country has heavy stakes in the well being and wholesomeness of the higher judiciary – the custodian of the Indian Constitution. Hence, it will be desirable to evolve a system which is all-inclusive and reflective of various facets of our ‘the body politic’ while keeping at the helm the “Independence of Judiciary”.
It is strongly felt that there is a need for a all-judges National Judicial Commission (NJC) to undertake the work of appointment of the Judges of the Higher Judiciary- consisting of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and the four senior most Supreme Court judges in the case of appointments in the Supreme Court, and of the CJI, two senior most Supreme Court judges and two senior most High Court Chief Justices in the case of High Court. The Chief Justice of India should be the Chairman of the Commission. In case of appointment of judges in the High Court, the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court and the Chief Minister of the State where that High Court is situated shall also be the Members. It is suggested that there should be another broad based authority juxtaposed with the NJC. The authority being suggested here will be in addition to the NJC that shall be performing the work of a screening committee and thereafter, refer the same to the NJC for final recommendations. This Committee could be named as "Empowered Committee". It could have one member as a Chief Justice of India or his nominee, two Members as the Speaker, Lok Sabha and Chairman, Rajya Sabha or their nominees. There could be one nominated representative of the Prime Minister and one representative of the Bar Council of India. An outstanding law academician would also be the member. He shall be elected by the confederation of Law institutes, the department of Laws of various Universities, the specialized Law Universities like National Law Schools and deemed Law Universities like Indian Law Institutes.