The Supreme Court’s Justice Surya Kant has said that the collegium system of appointing judges, despite its imperfections, serves as a “crucial institutional safeguard” and preserves the judiciary’s autonomy, The Indian Express reported on Sunday.

Kant, who is slated to become the next chief justice of India, said that the collegium system “significantly limits interference by the Executive and Legislature, thereby preserving the Judiciary’s autonomy and insulating judges from extraneous pressures that could otherwise compromise their impartiality,” the newspaper reported.

Under the collegium system, the five most senior judges of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, decide on the appointments and transfers of judges to the top court and the High Courts.

Speaking at Seattle University in the United States on June 4, Kant acknowledged that the system has faced criticism, especially on the lack of publicly articulated criteria for selecting judges. However, he said that “recent efforts by the Supreme Court signal a growing commitment to enhancing transparency and public confidence in it”.

In 2022, the Supreme Court Collegium had published detailed documentation of its deliberations on selecting five judges. Since October 2017, the Collegium has also been publishing its resolution on the court’s official website.

Kant also said that the “the judiciary’s evolving relationship with its own independence, lies at the very heart of how India’s vast, pluralistic democracy continues to function with remarkable cohesion”.

He also said that some phases of institutional strain “particularly during the Emergency” eventually “gave way to renewed judicial consciousness”.

In recent years, the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre has been selectively appointing judges recommended for elevation to the bench by the Supreme Court collegium, which has allowed the Union government to exercise a veto over judicial appointments.

The executive and the judiciary have been in a tug-of-war regarding appointments to higher judiciary in recent years. Former Law Minister Kiren Rijiju and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar have repeatedly criticised the collegium system of appointing judges, contending that it is opaque.

In 2014, the BJP-led government had introduced the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act with the objective of making appointments to the Supreme Court and High Courts “more broad-based, transparent, accountable and bringing objectivity in the system”.

The National Judicial Appointments Commission Act had proposed to make judicial appointments through a body consisting of the chief justice, two senior Supreme Court judges, the Union law minister and two other eminent persons nominated by the chief justice, the prime minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

In 2015, the Supreme Court struck down the Act, ruling that it was unconstitutional.

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