Why is CJI Chandrachud preparing the data of top-50 judges of the country?
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud has said that the country is working on the data related to top-50 judges. Speaking at an event of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Justice Chandrachud said, “We have data relating to the top 50 judges in the order of seniority. We have the judgment written by him. All this is being done so that objectivity increases in the work of the collegium.
CJI stresses on increasing transparency in collegium
Being a part of the collegium, my emphasis has been on promoting transparency in the collegium. As you all know, we give reasons for every resolution we pass, whether it relates to the appointment of judges of the High Courts, appointment of Chief Justices, transfer of judges or representation of judges.
Apart from the Center for Research and Planning, a permanent secretariat is also functioning in the Supreme Court, which deals with judicial appointments. The CJI said that the Center for Research and Planning has many talented youth including young judicial officers whom I have recruited.
It is headed by an officer of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. There is also a young Dalit student who was my former law clerk, now back from Jindal Global Law University after doing his LLM at Harvard Law School. We have a group of talented people.
Preparations are being made in view of the retirement of judges
At present, the Supreme Court has full strength of judges. Justice S Abdul Nazeer retired in January this year. Eight more judges will retire by December. Five judges will retire by June. In such a situation, the CJI is getting the data of top-50 judges of the country prepared, so that there can be transparency in the appointments.
CJI says appointments are to be done by summer so I thought I would tell CRP why don’t we collect data of top 50 judges of the country. This has never been done. So now we have data relating to the top 50 justices in order of seniority, we have the judgments they have written, we have the number of reportable judgments they have delivered. The idea is to foster a sense of objectivity in the work that the Collegium does. Therefore, the Center for Research and Planning will now merge its activities with the Permanent Secretariat of the Supreme Court.” That is, both will work together.
Which judges are about to retire?
A total of nine judges are going to retire in the year 2023. Justice S Abdul Nazeer has retired in January, so now Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, Justice Mukesh Kumar Rasikbhai Shah, Justice KM Joseph, Justice Ajay Rastogi, Justice V Ramasubramanian, Justice Krishna Murari, Justice S Ravindra Bhat, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul are left. .
