Disappointment over the appointment of judges.

The collegium system is the way by which judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are appointed and transferred. The collegium system is not rooted in the Constitution or a specific law promulgated by Parliament; it has evolved through judgments of the Supreme Court. The government can also raise objections and seek clarifications regarding the collegiumu2019s choices, but if the collegium reiterates the same names, the government is bound, under Constitution Bench judgments, to appoint them as judges.
Sounds good right? No government involvement which makes it more independent? So where is the problem then? The issue is that the system is non-transparent, since it does not involve any official mechanism or secretariat. It is seen as a closed-door affair with no prescribed norms regarding eligibility criteria, or even the selection procedure. There is no public knowledge of how and when a collegium meets, and how it takes its decisions. There are no official minutes of collegium proceedings.Some days ago, Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said the collegium system of appointments to the higher judiciary needs to be reconsidered in view of the concerns about the process.So what does senior judges have a say in this problem?The collegium system for appointment of judges to the higher judiciary can be improved and criticising it without coming up with an alternative u201cdoes not lead us anywhere,u201d former Chief Justice of India T S Thakur has said.u201cNo constitutional institution or model is perfect. We need to strengthen the collegium system by ironing out the creases and by being responsive to criticism. Dealing with such issues requires constitutional statesmanship and not public grandstanding,u201d the CJI said.So clearly they are accepting that there is some problems related to collegium system, but it is so because they don’t want judiciary to get influenced from external powers which is also right as judiciary is one of the four pillars of the democracy. But the question is will it cost the independence of judiciary in the name of making the collegium process more transparent?Comment your thoughts below.