General Knowledge / Supreme Court Of IndiaThe Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial court and the final court of appeal under the Constitution of India, the highest constitutional court, with the power of judicial review. Consisting of the Chief Justice of India and a maximum of 33 judges, it has extensive powers in the form of original, appellate and advisory jurisdictions.It safeguards fundamental rights of citizens and settles disputes between various government authorities as well as the central government verses state governments / state governments versus another state government in the country. As an advisory court, it hears matters which may specifically be referred to it under the constitution by President of India. It also may take cognisance of matters on its own (/ suo moto), without anyone drawing its attention to them. The law declared by the Supreme Court becomes binding on all courts within India and also by the union and state governments Per Article 142 of the constitution, it is the duty of the president to enforce the decrees of the Supreme Court. Constitution of the court Registry The registry of the supreme court is headed by the Secretary General who is assisted by 8 registrars, several additional and deputy registrars, etc., with 1770 employees in all (221 gazetted officers, 805 non-gazetted and 744 Class IV employees), Article 146 of the constitution deals with the appointments of officers and servants of the supreme court registry. Supreme Court advocates Supreme Court Rules, 2013 entitle only those advocates who are registered with the Supreme Court, called advocates-on-record to appear, act and plead for a party in the court. Those advocates who are designated as 'senior advocates' by the Supreme Court / any of the high courts can appear for clients along with an advocate-on-record. Any other advocate can appear for a party along with or under instructions from an advocate-on-record. Composition Size of the court Initially the Constitution of India provided for a supreme court with a chief justice and 7 judges.
Judges sit in small benches of 2 / 3/ 4 /5 referred to as a division bench when required settling fundamental questions of law Eligibility of a judge of the Supreme Court A citizen of India not exceeding 65 years age as per Article 124 of the constitution who has been 1. A judge of one high court or more (continuously), for at least five years, or 2. An advocate there, for at least ten years, or 3. A distinguished jurist, in the opinion of the president, power conferred by clause(2) of article 124 of the Constitution of India is eligible to be recommended for appointment, a judge of the supreme court. Appointments and the Collegium As per the constitution, as held by the court in the Three Judges Cases – (1982, 1993, 1998), a judge is appointed to the supreme court by the president on the recommendation of the collegiums — a closed group of the Chief Justice of India, the four most senior judges of the court and the senior-most judge hailing from the high court of a prospective appointee. This has resulted in a Memorandum of Procedure being followed, for the appointments. In 2015, the parliament passed a law to replace the collegium with a National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). This was struck down as unconstitutional by the supreme court, in the Fourth Judges' Case, as the new system would undermine the independence of the judiciary. Putting the old system of the collegium back, the court invited suggestions, even from the general public, on how to improve the collegium system, broadly along the lines of – setting up an eligibility criteria for appointments, a permanent secretariat to help the collegium sift through material on potential candidates, infusing more transparency into the selection process, grievance redressal and any other suggestion not in these four categories, like transfer of judges.This resulted in the court asking the government and the collegium to finalize the memorandum of procedure incorporating the above. Once, in 2009, the recommendation for the appointment of a judge of a high court made by the collegium of that court, had come to be challenged in the supreme court. The court held that who could become a judge was a matter of fact, and any person had a right to question it. But who should become a judge was a matter of opinion and could not be questioned. As long as an effective consultation took place within a collegium in arriving at that opinion, the content or material placed before it to form the opinion could not be called for scrutiny in court. Tenure Supreme Court judges retire at the age of 65. Salary A judge of the Supreme Court draws a salary of 250,000 Rs per month and chief justice earns 280,000 Rs per month. Removal Per Article 124(4) of the constitution, President can remove a judge on proved misbehavior / incapacity when parliament approves with a majority of the total membership of each house in favour of impeachment and not less than two thirds of the members of each house present. For initiating impeachment proceedings against a judge, at least 50 members of Rajya Sabha or 100 members of Lok Sabha shall issue the notice as per Judges (Inquiry) Act,1968. Then a judicial committee would be formed to frame charges against the judge, to conduct the fair trial and to submit its report to parliament. When the judicial committee report finds the judge guilty of misbehavior or incapacity, further removal proceedings would be taken up by the parliament if the judge is not resigning himself. The judge upon proven guilty is also liable for punishment as per applicable laws or for contempt of the constitution by breaching the oath under disrespecting constitution. Powers to punish for contempt Under Articles 129 and 142 of the constitution the supreme court has been vested with power to punish anyone for contempt of any court in India including itself. Roster system The Supreme Court decided to follow a new roster system from 5 February 2018 for allocation of matters to judges. Under the new roster system, the CJI will hear all special leave petitions (SLPs), and matters related to public interest, social justice, elections, arbitration, and criminal matters, among others. The other collegiums /senior judges to hear matters related to labour disputes, taxation matters, compensation matters, consumer protection matters, maritime law matters, mortgage matters, personal law matters, family law matters, land acquisition matters, service matters, company matters etc. Right to Information In the year 2010, the Supreme Court filed an appeal before itself challenging the judgment of the Delhi high court holding that the office of the chief justice of India came under the ambit of the RTI Act and was liable to reveal information under it. Though the Supreme Court is in favour of bringing CJI office under RTI act, the judgment of the pending case is not yet pronounced. Pending cases Total number of pending cases in the Supreme Court as on 1 November 2017 is 55,259 which includes 32,160 admission matters (miscellaneous) and 23,099 regular hearing matters. Holidays and working hours The Supreme Court works from 10 am to 4:30 pm, but is closed during winter and summer for 2 weeks each Appointment It has been pointed out that consensus within the collegium is occasionally resolved through trade-offs, resulting in unreliable appointments with consequences for litigants There has also been growing sycophancy and “lobbying” within the system. Justice Chelameswar gave evidence from existing records to argue this point. In one case, "a judge was blocked from elevation to the Madras High Court in 2009, in what appeared to have been a joint venture in the subversion of the law governing the collegium system by both the executive and the judiciary. Home Back |