Collegium System in India: Criticism, Comparison and Future

In India, there has been a national debate about how judges of the Supreme Court and High Court are chosen. Prior to the establishment of the Indian Supreme Court, judicial appointments were primarily the responsibility of the executive. The collegium system, which the Chief Justice of India and senior judges of the Supreme Court use to make new appointments to the Supreme Court and the High Courts, was established by the Supreme Court in 1993. The Indian Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional after Parliament amended the Constitution in 2014 and passed a bill to establish a commission to select judges. The collegium method of choosing and transferring judges in the higher courts has been the topic of much criticism, and it has been blamed on disagreements between the judiciary and the administration, as well as the slow pace of judicial appointments. Critics have pointed out that the system is opaque because there is no formal procedure or public accountability.