No plan to change Collegium system to appoint judges: Govt

Barely a month after lamenting that the present Collegium system was coming in the way of overcoming shortage of judges, the government today said there is no proposal at present to change the existing mode of appointing judges to Supreme Court and High Courts.

Law Minister M Veerappa Moily in a written reply in the Lok Sabha said, "there is no such proposal before the government at present" to a question whether government plans to change the pattern of the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary.

In its Vision Document released last month, the Law Ministry had said that the present Collegium system of appointment of judges to the higher judiciary was coming in its way to overcome the shortage.

"There are no guidelines dealing with situations of a deadlock or lack of consensus among the members of the Collegium, or dealing with situations where the majority members of the Collegium disagree with the CJI," the document said.

While the Supreme Court has 26 judges against the sanctioned strength of 31, there are 255 vacancies in 21 High Courts which have a total approved strength of 895.

Before the Vision Document was released, Moily had told reporters that the present system may be revisited.

"Already there is a memorandum of procedure (on appointment of judges) which we are going by as of today. I am not reiterating that the same thing will continue. May be, we have to revisit the procedure," he had said.

The 1993 and 1998 decisions of the apex court had led to the Memorandum of Procedures relating to Collegium that appoints judges to the higher judiciary by recommending their names to the government.