Appointment of Judges to the Supreme Court of India: Transparency, Accountability, and Independence
Arghya Sengupta, Ritwika Sharma - Oxford University Press, 2018
In
Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association v. Union of India, the
Supreme Court of India, by majority, struck down the National Judicial
Appointments Commission (NJAC), established to appoint judges to the
Supreme Court of India and High Courts. Unsurprisingly, the NJAC
judgment has been the subject of a deeply polarized debate in the public
sphere and academia. The essays in this volume analyse the NJAC
judgment, and provide a rich context to it, in terms of philosophical,
comparative, and constitutional issues that underpin it. The work traces
the history of judicial appointments in India; analyses constitutional
principles behind selecting judges and their application in the NJAC
Case; and comparatively examines the judicial appointments process in
six select countries-UK, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Canada, and
Nepal-enquiring into what makes a good judge and an effective
appointments process.
