Supreme Court makes procedure for appointment of judges public

Appointment or transfer of judges by the senior most Supreme Court judges with their reasons will be open to the public for the first time in history. The Supreme Court collegium system is a panel of the country's top five judges including the Chief Justice of India. The panel has decided that all its discussions and recommendations for the first time will be put up on the Supreme court's website. The collegium system of judges appointing judges has been strongly criticized over the years by the government, the system has often called for transparency and accountability in judicial transfers and appointments. However, many eminent jurists have also criticized the collegium as it lacks transparency and has suggested for reforms. In 2015, parliament introduced National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) which would comprise the Law Minister and two eminent persons selected by a separate panel including the Chief Justice, the Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition. But NJAC was quashed by the Supreme Court, which felt the government would have too great a say in deciding judges and the independence of the judiciary would be dissolved. The Supreme Court's collegium system has been in controversy over a judge resigning after being passed over for elevation recently, the decision of the panel to go public can remove the disparities in the system. In an instance of Justice Jayant Patel, who ordered a CBI investigation into the 2004 Ishrat Jehan encounter killing in Gujarat, was not promoted to Karnataka Chief Justice despite being senior most in the state. Moreover, he was transferred to the Allahabad High Court, where he dropped to third in seniority.