Collegium System and Judicial Appointments

The collegium system is the way judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are chosen in India. A small group of the senior-most judges, called the collegium, selects names and sends them to the government. The President then formally appoints them. The system is not written in the Constitution. It was created by Supreme Court judgments in 1993 and 1998.

Why does it exist?

Judges often decide cases against the government. If the government alone chose judges, it could pick people likely to favour it. This would hurt the independence of the judiciary, which means judges must decide cases without fear or pressure from anyone. The collegium was meant to keep the selection of judges mainly in the hands of judges themselves.

What does the Constitution say?

• Article 124(2): The President appoints Supreme Court judges after consultation with such judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts as the President thinks necessary. For judges other than the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) must always be consulted.
• Article 217: The President appoints High Court judges after consulting the CJI, the Governor of the state and the Chief Justice of that High Court.
• Article 222: The President can transfer a judge from one High Court to another after consulting the CJI.
• Article 124(1): Parliament can decide by law how many judges the Supreme Court has. The original Constitution fixed 8 (the CJI plus 7). Parliament has raised it several times.

The whole fight over appointments has been about one word: what does "consultation" really mean?

Where did it come from? The Judges Cases

1. First Judges Case, S.P. Gupta v. Union of India (1981): The Supreme Court said "consultation" does not mean "concurrence" (agreement). The government could disagree with the CJI. So the executive had the final word.
2. Second Judges Case, Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association v. Union of India (1993): The Court reversed this. It said the CJI's opinion has primacy, but the CJI must form it together with the two senior-most judges. This created the collegium. If the government returns a name and the collegium sends it again (reiterates), the government must appoint.
3. Third Judges Case (1998): This came from a reference by the President under Article 143 (the President asking the Court for advice). A nine-judge bench widened the collegium. For the Supreme Court it became the CJI plus the four senior-most judges (five in total). For High Courts it is the CJI plus the two senior-most judges.
4. Fourth Judges Case (2015): Parliament had passed the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2014 and the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, 2014 to replace the collegium. On 16 October 2015, a five-judge bench struck both down by a 4:1 majority. The majority said that keeping the judiciary's say in appointments is part of judicial independence, which is part of the basic structure of the Constitution. Justice J. Chelameswar dissented. The collegium came back.

How does an appointment to the Supreme Court work today?

The steps are set out in a document called the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), an agreement between the government and the judiciary drawn up after the Third Judges Case.

1. The collegium (CJI plus four senior-most judges) discusses possible names, usually senior High Court judges or Chief Justices. It also considers the views of other senior judges who come from the same High Court.
2. The collegium sends its recommendation to the Union Law Minister.
3. The government may run background checks, including an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report.
4. The Law Minister sends the file to the Prime Minister, who advises the President.
5. The President signs the warrant of appointment, and the Law Ministry issues a notification.
6. The new judge takes an oath before the CJI.

If the government has doubts, it can send a name back once. If the collegium sends the same name again, the government is expected to appoint.

How is the Chief Justice of India chosen?

By convention, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court becomes the next CJI. The outgoing CJI recommends this name to the government. Seniority is counted from the date of appointment to the Supreme Court.

Who can become a Supreme Court judge? (Article 124(3)) A citizen of India who has been:

• a High Court judge for at least 5 years, or
• an advocate of a High Court for at least 10 years, or
• a distinguished jurist in the President's opinion.

Supreme Court judges retire at 65. High Court judges retire at 62.

What is the strength of the Supreme Court?

The number has grown over time as cases piled up. It was raised to 31 in 2009 and to 34 in 2019 (CJI plus 33). In 2026, the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act raised it to 38 (CJI plus 37), with effect from 16 May 2026. The number of judges actually in office is called the working strength. Vacancies arise when judges retire before new ones are appointed.

What do the collegium look at?

Mainly seniority, merit and integrity. It also tries to give fair representation to different High Courts, regions and social groups, and to women. In 2017, the collegium began publishing its resolutions on the Supreme Court website to improve transparency.

Commonly confused concepts

• Consultation vs concurrence: Consultation means asking for an opinion. Concurrence means agreement is needed. The 1981 case treated it as consultation; the 1993 case treated the CJI's view as decisive.
• Collegium vs NJAC: The collegium has only judges. The NJAC would have had six members: the CJI, two senior-most Supreme Court judges, the Law Minister and two eminent persons. It was struck down in 2015.
• Sanctioned strength vs working strength: Sanctioned is the maximum allowed by law. Working is how many judges are actually serving.
• Supreme Court collegium vs High Court collegium: The SC collegium has five judges (CJI plus four). The collegium for High Court appointments has three (CJI plus two), and within each High Court the Chief Justice and two senior-most judges start the process.
• Appointment vs removal: Appointment is by the collegium-led process above. Removal is only by Parliament, by a special majority in each House on grounds of "proved misbehaviour or incapacity" (Article 124(4)).

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Lack of transparency: Critics say decisions are taken behind closed doors with no published criteria for choosing one judge over another.
• "Judges appointing judges": Some argue no other major democracy lets judges choose themselves without any role for elected bodies.
• Delays: Names often stay pending with the government for months. The judiciary and the government have each blamed the other for delays.
• Diversity: Women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and backward classes remain under-represented in the higher judiciary.
• The other view: Supporters say the collegium protects courts from political pressure, which matters because the government is the biggest litigant in Indian courts.
• Way forward: Many experts suggest finalising a revised MoP with clear criteria, fixed timelines for each step, a permanent secretariat to support the collegium, and more published reasons.

Concepts to Know

• Independence of the judiciary: The idea that judges should decide cases freely, without pressure from the government, Parliament or anyone else.
• Basic structure: A rule from the Kesavananda Bharati case (1973). Parliament can amend the Constitution, but cannot destroy its core features, such as judicial independence.
• Article 143 reference: The power of the President to ask the Supreme Court for its opinion on an important legal question.
• Notification: An official government order published so that it has legal effect.
• Ordinance: A temporary law the President can make when Parliament is not in session (Article 123). It must be approved by Parliament within six weeks of its reassembly.
• Parent High Court: The High Court where a judge was first appointed as a judge.