“Vile and Abominable Pacts”: The Sale of Judicial Appointments and the Great Decline of Viceregal Patronage

2019 ◽  
pp. 123-152
Keyword(s):  
Judicial Appointments ◽  
Great Decline

Appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada

2018 ◽  
pp. 231-241
Author(s):  
Peter McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Law School ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Judicial Appointments ◽  
Canadian Experience ◽  
The Supreme Court

This essay traces the genesis of the Supreme Court of Canada under the Supreme Court Act of 1875, and the appointment procedure as described in it. The essay argues that the widening of the pool, where consultation for judicial appointments is made, has resulted in the appointment of persons with diverse credentials. The author describes how a reformed procedure for appointments involves the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice consulting various Chief Justices, law school deans, and provincial justice ministers to solicit names of potential appointees. The Canadian experience demonstrates variations in appointment mechanisms for broad-based consultation even in the absence of a commission model. The author, however, rues that most innovations in the appointments process have been short-lived, with a general shift to a more secretive process for appointments.

Comparative Law in the NJAC Judgment

2018 ◽  
pp. 197-207
Author(s):  
Suhrith Parthasarathy
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Comparative Law ◽  
Judicial Independence ◽  
International Experience ◽  
Judicial Appointments ◽  
The Supreme Court

This essay is an overview of the use of comparative law in the NJAC Case, and offers a critique of the Supreme Court’s analysis of comparative law in judicial appointments. The essay argues that the Supreme Court adopted an isolationist approach by shunning international experience from fifteen countries cited before it by the Union of India to drive home the point that executive presence in judicial appointments does not, by itself, impinge upon judicial independence. The author contests the Supreme Court’s cursory dismissal of relevant international experience on the ground that India, with its peculiar set of circumstances cannot replicate the experiences of other nations in judicial appointments. The author argues that this is self-serving and the judgment would have been better served by a surer grasp of comparative law and its rationales.

The Judicial Collegium

2018 ◽  
pp. 45-55
Author(s):  
Arun Jaitley
Keyword(s):  
Judicial Appointments ◽  
Strong Case

This essay addresses three pertinent aspects—first, how the Second Judges’ and Third Judges’ Cases led to the establishment of the collegium system. In this discussion, the essay analyses the key findings of the Second and Third Judges’ Cases, an exercise which is pertinent for an understanding of how the ‘collegium’ came into being. Second, this essay proceeds to establish a normative vision of what the judicial appointments process should look like so as to address the criticisms that the collegium system has been subjected to. The essay makes a strong case for reform of the collegium through practical examples of when it has failed in its constitutional duties. Third, the essay addresses questions relating to how appointments should be made, and who should make the appointments.

From Kania to Sarkaria

2018 ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
Suchindran B.N.
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Judicial Appointments ◽  
Chief Justice ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The 1960S

This essay is a critical analysis of the dynamics of executive-judiciary relations in judicial appointments from 1950 to 1973. It serves as a primer for the appointments made to the Supreme Court from 1950–73, the supersessions that were apprehended but did not come about, and generally, what weighed with the judges as well as the executive while making appointments in the years immediately after the Constitution came into force. The essay traverses the historical journey of appointments to the Supreme Court from the tenure of the first Chief Justice of India, Justice H.J. Kania, to the appointment of Justice R.S. Sarkaria in 1973. It provides insights, and in some cases, hitherto unknown facts about the factors that prompted the appointment of certain justices to the Court. The essay also documents the gradual incursion that the executive had begun to make in judicial appointments in the latter half of the 1960s.

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