Vacancy Woes

The collegium has the extraordinary opportunity of recommending 13 names for judges. But before that, it needs to build consensus and consider deserving candidates to reflect the composite culture of India

- Lokendra Malik

ON April 24, Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana assumed the highest judicial office in the country based on the seniority principle. As a well-established convention, the president of India appoints the seniormost judge of the Supreme Court to the office of CJI ever since the commencement of the Constitution.

However, on two occasions—in 1973 and 1977—this convention was ignored and junior judges were appointed as CJIs for political reasons. In 1993, in the Second Judges’ case, the Supreme Court also approved the seniority convention. Now it will be very difficult for the government to breach this convention.

CJI Ramana’s predecessor, Justice SA Bobde retired on April 23, 2021, after completing a tenure of over 17 months. Surprisingly, during his time in the apex court, he could not make any visible contribution, particularly in judicial appointments. Unfortunately, as a leader of the Supreme Court collegium, he could not build a consensus there to appoint a judge to the Court. However, he was successful in making dozens of recommendations to appoint the judges in different High Courts.

In addition to this, he delivered a judgment in M/S PLR Projects Limited vs Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. that rightly fixed the timeline for the government to appoint judges in High Courts. Now the ball is in CJI Ramana’s court. Let us see how he handles the collegium crisis.

Notably, the last time judges were appointed to the apex court was in 2019. They were Justices Krishna Murari, S Ravindra Bhat, V Ramasubramanian and Hrishikesh Roy. The earliest vacancy of a Supreme Court judge was in November that year after Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi’s retirement. It still hasn’t been filled up.