Faced with supersession, punitive transfers and threats to judicial independence, the Supreme Court staged a judicial coup of sorts in 1993. With almost 40% of over 1,000 posts in 24 high courts lying vacant, judicial appointments have been in a gridlock for almost two years while the government and the judiciary have been trying to sort out their differences over the memorandum of procedure for judges’ appointments. Following serious complaints about the functioning of the secretive collegium system, Parliament enacted the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) in August 2014 with complete political unanimity. Read | NDA memorandum: Judiciary-govt face-off brewing over appointmentsInitially hailed as an antidote to unwarranted executive interference in judicial appointments, the collegium system soon degenerated into a ‘give and take’ system. After the Supreme Court scrapped the NJAC in October 2015 in the name of judicial independence, the extra-constitutional collegium system is back.

Source: Hindustan Times August 01, 2016 14:34 UTC