Becoming a constitutional court judge for lawyers is now not as easy as it was about three decades ago. There was a time when mere recommendation by the High Court collegium to the three-member Supreme Court collegium led by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) was almost a guarantee to become a HC judge. It is becoming tougher now.
The main reason behind it is the introduction of personal interaction (interview) of the candidates recommended by HC collegia. This system was started by CJI Justice Sanjiv Khanna in consultation with justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant. The idea was to determine the suitability of candidates for judgeship in a constitutional court. It has led to a drastic drop in the success rate of recommended lawyer-candidates from a about 90 percent to less than 50 percent in past few months.
This move was devised given the increasing number of controversies created by some shocking judgments by HC judges and the issue of corruption.
This move by the SC collegiums is now having telling effect. As many as 101 names were recommended by collegia of 12 HCs – Andhra Pradesh, Allahabad, Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Gujarat, Manipur, Orissa, Patna, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttarakhand. But the SC collegium went on to patiently interview all of them and only 49 of them were found suitable for appointment as judges of the HC.
