APPOINTMENT OF JUDGES TO THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

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.

I. The History of Judicial Appointments in India
1. From Kania to Sarkaria: Judicial Appointments from 1950 to 1973
    Suchindran B.N.
2. A Committed Judiciary: Indira Gandhi and Judicial Appointments
    T.R. Andhyarujina
3. Recovering Lost Ground: The Case of the Curious Eighties
    A.K. Ganguli
4. The Judicial Collegium: Issues, Controversies, and the Road Ahead
    Arun Jaitley
5. A Plague on Both Your Houses: NJAC and the Crisis of Trust
    Pratap Bhanu Mehta

II. The Analysis of the NJAC Judgment
6. Judicial Review and Parliamentary Power: Reorienting the Balance
    K.T. Thomas
7. Checks and Balances Revisited: The Role of the Executive in Judicial Appointments
    Mukul Rohatgi
8. Opening up Appointments: Civil Society Participation in the NJAC
    Madhavi Divan
9. The Obvious Foundation Test: Re-inventing the Basic Structure Doctrine
    Raju Ramachandran and Mythili Vijay Kumar Thallam
10. Eight Fatal Flaws: The Failings of the National Judicial Appointments Commission
      Arvind Datar
11. The Sole Route to an Independent Judiciary?: The Primacy of Judges in Appointment
      Gautam Bhatia
12. Justice Lokur’s Concurring View: The Future of Appointments Reform
      Alok Prasanna Kumar
13. Justice Chelameswar’s Dissent: Reforming to Preserve
      Arghya Sengupta
14. The NJAC Case and Judicial Independence: Conceptual and Contextual Safeguards
      Gopal Subramanium

III Comparative Perspectives
15. Comparative Law in the NJAC Judgment: A Missed Opportunity
      Suhrith Parthasarathy
16. Judicialization of Judicial Appointments?: A Response from the United Kingdom
      Chintan Chandrachud
17. South Africa—Analysing a Commission Model
      Chris McConnachie
18. Appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada: Procedures and Controversies
      Peter McCormick
19. Judicial Appointments in Pakistan: The Seminal Case of the 18th Amendment
      Sameer Khosa
20. Judicial Appointments in Sri Lanka: A Politicized Trajectory
      Rehan Abeyratne
21. Appointments to the Supreme Court of Nepal: A New Beginning
      Semanta Dahal