The judiciary recently suffered a crisis of confidence when four Supreme Court (SC) judges held a press conference on January 12 last to air their grievances against the Chief Justice of India (CJI). They told the media that democracy was in danger hence they had to resort to the unprecedented step. But this was waiting to happen. Earlier Justice Chelameswar had refused to attend the collegiums meetings because he never approved of this body constituted for the selection of judges to the High Courts and Supreme Court. Chelameswar favoured the National Judicial Appointments Commission which would also comprise non-judicial persons of integrity. The NJAC Act passed in 2014 was struck down by the Supreme Court on the plea that there might be unhealthy interference by the executive. But collegium suffers from total lack of transparency. This has been the contention of many retired judges. In fact there are allegations of favouritism, nepotism, groupism, victimisation and ego clashes, which have often prevented outstanding candidates from being selected as High Court or Supreme Court judges.
There have been internal rumblings within the higher judiciary in the past but things never came to a point of confrontation. Even today there are many who maintain that things cannot go back to normal after the four senior most judges had expressed their lack of confidence in the Chief Justice and their junior colleagues who were appointed to different benches to look at politically sensitive cases. One of the judges in fact broke down because he felt that his colleagues have cast a slur on him. This does not augur well for the judiciary. It is important at this juncture for India to look at how other democracies manage their judicial appointments. Countries like the USA and UK have evolved judicial appointment procedures that provide a key role to the executive, but with checks and balances from other stakeholders, like the legislature, eminent personalities, laypersons, and occasionally even a limited role for the judiciary itself. It is high time to address this anomaly plaguing the country’s highest court of appeal