Abstract:
Judiciary, the justice delivery system resorted to by the common man for his legal and moral rights are at its zenith in Indian democracy. It is seen as the epitome of justice delivery system in India. But there has been dissent with respect to appointment of judges to various High Courts and Supreme Court of India. The existing collegium system of judges exercising absolute powers to appoint judges lacks complete transparency in the procedure and process of appointments. Nobody outside the system knew about the appointments of the few while the rejection of other few. The absolute power is vested with the judges. Lord Acton’s words, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely” rightly proves this very same fact. Hence a new attempt was made to make the system more transparent and effective. Such an initiative was the adoption of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) and it later turned out to be bigger controversy. The past few years saw a long standing legal battle between the executive and the judiciary regarding the appointments to various High Courts and Supreme Court of India. In order to deal with the situation, the Court held the NJAC as unconstitutional and void.
Description:
The Dissertation seeks to analyze the juridical history of judicial appointments in India, the proposed new system of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) and the battle surrounding it. The writer with the help of various secondary sources such as books, published articles, and other works has analyzed the above positions. According to the writer, both the NJAC and the collegium system are far from perfect. But, the stand taken by the writer is that NJAC has the potential to become perfect system after curing its minor defects.
