Procedure For Appointment Of Judges Of Supreme Court

1. By
KES, Rajarambapu Institute of Technology, Rajaramnagar,
(An Autonomous Institute, affiliated to Shivaji University,
Kolhapur
TY - 2021-22 (Sem V)
Department of Computer Science and Information Technology
The presentation on
“Appointment of Judges of Supreme Court”
(Indian Constitution, SH301)

2. ❖ Introduction
❖ Composition of Supreme Court
❖ Qualification required to become a judge of the Supreme Court
❖ Appointment of judges of Supreme Court
❖ Procedure before the 99th amendment of the Constitution
❖ Procedure after the 99th amendment of the Constitution
❖ The current procedure of appointment of Supreme Court judges
❖ Conclusion

3. ❖ The Supreme Court of India is, in fact, one of the very powerful
Courts in the world.
❖ It is the final arbitrator in a dispute arising between the centre and the
states or the state inter-se.
❖ It is also the final interpreter and guardian of the Constitution as well
as the fundamental rights of the people.
❖ It is also the highest and final interpreter of the general law of the
country.
❖ It is the highest appellate Court in civil and criminal matters.
❖ Since the Supreme Court has such vast power and functions,
therefore judges who sit in the Supreme Court have huge
responsibilities on their shoulders hence, they must be appointed
through a just and fair process without any bias so that working of the
Supreme Court can be carried out in an efficient manners.

4. ❖ Under article 124 of Indian Constitution which provides for ‘Constitution
and establishment of S.C. ‘clause (1).
❖ States that the Supreme Court of India comprises a Chief Justice and
another number of judges as Parliament by law prescribes.
❖ Originally, the other number of judges were ‘seven’ excluding the
Chief Justice of India.
❖ Presently, the total number of judges in the Supreme Court are 34
including the Chief Justice of India.

5. ❖ For a person to become a judge of the Supreme Court he must be a
citizen of India (Indian).
❖ He / She must have 5 years of experience as a judge in the High
Court .
❖ It is not necessary here that this five year of experience must be in a
‘single’ High Court. It can be possible that a person has 2 years’
experience in some High Court and 3 years of experience in some
other High Court
❖ He / She must have 10 years of experience as an advocate in the High
Court
❖ He / She is in the opinion of the President, a distinguished Jurist.

6. ❖ In order to understand the present ‘method’ use to appoint a person as
a judge of the Supreme Court, we need to divide the period as follow
❖ Procedure of appointment of Supreme Court judge before 99th
amendment
❖ Procedure of appointment of Supreme Court judge after 99th
amendment
❖ Current procedure of appointment of Supreme Court judge

7. ❖ Before 99th amendment of constitution article 124 (2) which governs
the appointment of Supreme Court judge.
❖ States that “every judge of the Supreme Court shall be appointed
by the president by warrant under his hand and seal after
consultation with such of the judges of the Supreme Court and of
High Court in the states as the President may deem necessary for
the purpose”.

8. ❖ After this amendment in 2015, under article 124(2), every judge of the
Supreme Court shall be appointed by the president by warrant under
his hand and seal on the recommendation of the National Judicial
Appointment Commission referred to in article 124 A.
❖ NJAC, as provided by Article 124 (A), consisted of
1. Chief Justice of India
2. Two other senior judges of the Supreme Court
3. Union law minister
4. 2 eminent people’ to be nominated by the committee consisting of
the Prime minister, Chief Minister of India and the leader of
opposition.

9. ❖ In Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association v. Union of India,
the Court held that the ‘collegium system’ as it existed before
National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC), would again
become operative.
❖ But the Court also ordered for the introduction of appropriate
measures in order to improve the 21 years old ‘collegium system’
resultantly the memorandum of the procedure being brought into
working i.e. now ‘collegium system’ will work as per Memorandum of
Procedure ‘MOP’.

10. ❖ The working of the collegiums system under the protocol of MOP is
the best possible way to appoint a judge of the Supreme Court of
India.
❖ However, with the need of time, a more efficient system surely
needs to be found so that appointment procedure could be fairer.
❖ The judiciary will have the best possible minds as judges.