The criteria for the selection of judges should be made transparent and the reasons for selecting or rejecting a candidate must be put in public domain, the government is likely to tell the Supreme Court on Tuesday as part of its suggestions to improve the collegium system.
Sources in the government on Monday said that the Apex Court is likely to be told that to usher in transparency, the Supreme Court collegium should record the reasons for the selection or rejection of a candidate and the same should be put in public domain, according to a draft response framed by the government.
The Supreme Court collegium decides on the appointment of High Court judges, their transfer and promotion as Chief Justice of a High Court and their elevation to the Apex Court based on the suggestions made by judges of that high court and SC justices who had earlier worked there.
The recommendations of the SC collegium are then sent to the government, which may either approve them or send them back with a ‘request to reconsider’. If the collegium reiterates the recommendation, government has to accept it.
The government may also tell Supreme Court to define the criteria for the selection of judges for the higher judiciary and it must be part of the memorandum of procedure.
While one memorandum of procedure – an executive order drafted after the collegium came into being over 20 years ago – deals with high courts, the other deals with the Apex Court.
The government may also suggest bringing the decisions of the collegium under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, though its plans to ask the SC to record the decisions of the collegium and put them in public domain goes beyond the requirements of the Right to Information (RTI) law.
The Law Ministry had earlier conveyed to the SC’s e-committee to make the SC-monitored National Judicial Data Grid more broad-based.