NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday decided to post on its official website all its decisions, including those on elevation, transfer, appointment and rejection of judges, in a historic move to bring in transparency in the system.
The top court has posted detailed reasons for its October 3, 2017 recommendation for judicial appointments to the Madras High Court and the Kerala High Court. They are available under the tag ‘Collegium Resolutions’ on the website. So far, the Supreme Court Collegium’s decisions on transfers, elevation, appointments and so on were not disclosed to the public, drawing criticism from the legal fraternity.
At present, the Collegium is headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and has as its members the four senior-most judges of the apex court — Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph. This decision has come on the very day the Collegium system was put in place 24 years ago. The Collegium had recently come under attack with the resignation of Justice Jayant Patel of the Karnataka High Court soon after his transfer to the Allahabad High Court.
Earlier too, there was criticism about the opaque appointment system within the judiciary itself. In his dissenting judgment in the National Judicial Appointments Commission case, Justice J Chelameshwar had lashed out at the secrecy in the appointment of judges to the highest constitutional courts.
“The decisions henceforth taken by the Collegium indicating reasons shall be put on the website of Supreme Court, when recommendation(s) is/are sent to Government with regard to cases relating to initial elevation to High Court Bench, confirmation as permanent Judge(s) of High Court, elevation to the post of Chief Justice of High Court, transfer of High Court Chief Justices/Judges and elevation to Supreme Court, because on each occasion, the material which is considered by the Collegium is different.
“The Resolution is passed to ensure transparency and yet maintain confidentiality in the Collegium system,” the resolution, adopted on October 3, said.