15% appointment of senior class judges in five years A to Z Counsel

Circle Institute, New Delhi: A little more than 15 per cent of the justices appointed by the High Courts in the last five years have been from the upper castes. The Department of Justice gave information about this before a parliamentary committee. It was pointed out by the department that appointment of judges has not become all-inclusive and socially diverse even after three decades of giving primacy to the judiciary.

Proposals for appointment of judges in the Supreme Court and High Courts are initiated by the Collegium. Therefore, they have the primary responsibility of addressing the problem of social diversity by recommending names of eligible candidates from among the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), minorities and women,’ the Justice Department underlined.

In the current system, the person recommended by the Supreme Court collegium can be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court and the High Court, or the same department should take care of it. The Department of Justice made a detailed presentation before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, headed by senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Sushil Modi. ‘It has been almost 30 years since the Supreme Court accepted the supreme role of judges appointed by the judiciary. However, keeping in view the need of social diversity, the expectation of making the higher judiciary all-inclusive and representative has not yet been fulfilled,’ the department’s presentation made it clear.

‘The government requests the Chief Justices of the High Courts to send proposals for the appointment of judges, to ensure social diversity in the appointment of judges in the High Courts, to give due consideration to eligible candidates from SC, ST, OBC, minorities and women,’ the department also said. From 2018 to 19 December 2022, a total of 537 judges were appointed to the High Court. Out of this, 1.3 per cent justices are ST, 2.8 per cent SC, 11 per cent OBC and 2.6 per cent belong to minority communities. No information is available about the social background of 20 appointments made during this period, such information was given by the department.