Indian judiciary .A basic introduction

Indian judiciary .A basic introduction

Indian judiciary is one of the oldest legal systems , a continuation of the British legal system established by British at mid-19^th century based on Common Law system. The constitution of India is the supreme legal document of the country.

In India, we have an independent and integrated judicial system. Unlike other federations, India has a single and unified judicial system for the entire country. There is Supreme Court at the apex level, High Courts at the State level and further below are subordinate courts.

                                                                                                                  

There are different levels and different norms for appointment to different levels of Judiciary . According to constitution of India, Chapter VI of Section VI deals with the Subordinate Judiciary.

Article 233 of the Constitution of India states that-

 Appointment of district judges

(1) Appointments of persons to be, and the posting and promotion of, district judges in any State shall be made by the Governor of the State in consultation with the High Court exercising jurisdiction in relation to such State.

(2) A person not already in the service of the Union or of the State shall only be eligible to be appointed a district judge if he has been for not less than seven years an advocate or a pleader and is recommended by the High Court for appointment.

In matters of recruitment of other persons to judicial service other than District Judges ,the power to make appointments is conferred on the Governor in accordance with State Public Service Commission and High court of that particular state According to Article 234 of the Constitution of India.

 In 1993, in what is popularly known as the “Advocates On Record” case, a nine-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the statute had given the power and primacy of appointments of judges to the judiciary to insulate it from executive or legislative control and to ensure its absolute independence. The bench had given the ruling on a petition filed by the Advocates on Record Association, relating to disputes on transfer and appointments of judges.

Which till now was known as the collegium system in India.The process under which Judges were choose till now was In the high courts, the process is initiated by the respective chief justices. In the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) takes the initiative. The final decision is taken by five Supreme Court judges, including the CJI.

A person should have practised at least 10 years as a lawyer to become a high court judge. The chief justice of the high court, with the help of two other senior-most judges, draws up a panel of prospective candidates. There is no system of public intimation or advertisements eliciting applications for the posts. After examining the credentials of the judges on factors such as competence and integrity and state intelligence inputs, the high court chief justice forwards the names of the prospective judges to the CJI for confirmation.

The CJI consults the collegium of four other senior-most judges of the apex court. The CJI and the collegium can approve or reject the names.

If the collegium approves the names, they are sent to the President of India through the Union government for appointments.

Supreme Court judges are appointed from among the chief justices of the various high courts or the senior-most presiding judges of the high courts.

The Supreme Court has the prerogative of appointing prominent lawyers with over 10 years’ experience as a judge of the apex court. Justice Santosh Hegde and Justice Kuldeep Singh (both have retired) were appointed to the Supreme Court directly from the bar where they were practising.

The Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 passed in the Lok Sabha on 13-8-2014 provides for setting up of a six-member National Judicial Commission to select and recommend judges to the High Courts and Supreme Court removing the collegium system in India.

The training of newly inducted judicial officers of subordinate courts generally happens in their respective state Judicial Academies for a period comprising of 9 to 12 months varies from state to state. They have institutional training, practical training and field training respectively.

India also has National judicial Academy situated in Bhopal established on August 17 ,1993. The National Judicial Education Strategy (NJES) was established by the Institute in September, 2006, as a national level system for judicial education, with which it hopes to achieve its objectives in technical education.  The institute offers 6 types of programmes to its three categories of candidates, High Court Justices, District Judiciaries and State Judicial Academics.

The vision of NJES is "Judicial education enhances the delivery of Timely Justice”.As stated in the National Judicial Training Strategy the national judicial education system includes (i) common aims, objects and methodologies as set out in the National Judicial Education Strategy; (ii) a System for Needs Assessment and Coordinated Calendar Development; (iii) System for Coordination and Cooperation amongst SJAs inter-se and NJA in Curriculum Development, Knowledge generation/knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Management; Sharing of Materials and Resource persons; and Library and Web Resources; (iv) Coordination of Delivery of Judicial Education and Impact/Quality evaluation; (v) Institutional Framework for Coordination Amongst State and National Judicial Academies; and (vi) A Framework for Discussing and Addressing Common Institutional and Financial Issues.

The Promotion of Judicial officers  in subordinate courts depends  upon A.C.R (Confidential Report) given by their respective District Judge to the High Courts. Merit cum seniority is also seen .Integrity is also seen as an important criteria for promotion of judicial officers .

Regarding elevation of High court Justice to Chief Justice of High Court or to Supreme court is totally taken by Supreme Court Collegium which is then approved by the Central Government. Any dissent note submitted by any Judge to the Centre regarding the elevation of a judge is returned by the Centre for further consideration.