Ad hoc committee on the Supreme Court
After the constitution of the Constituent Assembly, the issue of judicial appointments and salaries was taken up by an ad hoc committee on the Supreme Court. The committee comprised of S. Varadachariar (a former Judge of the Federal Court), B.L. Mitter (a former Advocate General of the Federal Court), in addition to some noted jurists – Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar, K.M. Munshi and B.N. Rau (Constitutional Adviser to the Constituent Assembly of India).
Suggestions on Judicial Appointments
The ad hoc committee presented its report to the Constituent Assembly on 21.5.1947. With reference to judicial independence, it modified the consultative proposal suggested in the Sapru Committee report, by recommending a panel of 11 persons, nominated by the President, in consultation with the Chief Justice of India. Alternatively, it was suggested, that the panel would recommend three candidates, and the President in consultation with the Chief Justice of India, would choose one of the three. It was suggested, that the panel would take its decision(s) by 2/3rd majority.
To ensure independence, it was recommended, that the panel should have a tenure of ten years. Based on the above report, it was submitted, that the proposal suggested a wider participation of a collegium of Judges, politicians and law officers, in addition to the President and the Chief Justice of India, in the matter of appointment of Judges to the higher judiciary.
Report to Constituent Assembly
On the basis of the above report, B.N. Rau prepared a memorandum dated 30.5.1947, wherein he made his own suggestions. The above suggestions related to Judges of the Supreme Court, as also, of High Courts.
The Union Constitution Committee presented its report to the Constituent Assembly on 4.7.1947, also pertaining to appointments to the higher judiciary. Yet another memorandum, on the Principles of a Model Provincial Constitution was prepared by the Constitutional Adviser on 13.5.1947, relating to appointments to the higher judiciary, which was adopted by the Provincial Constitution Committee.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on 15.7.1947, expressed the following views:
“The committee have given special attention to the appointment of judges of the High Court. This is considered to be very important by the committee and as the judiciary should be above suspicion and should be above party influences, it was agreed that the appointment of High Court judges should be made by the President of the Union in consultation with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of the Provincial High Court and the Governor with the advice of the Ministry of the Province concerned. So there are many checks provided to ensure fair appointments to the High Court.”
Suggestions for Judicial Appointments in first draft of Constitution
The first draft of the new constitution prepared by B.N. Rau was presented to the Constituent Assembly in October 1947, wherein, it was expressed that Judges of the Supreme Court, would be appointed by the President, in consultation with the sitting Judges of the Supreme Court, and Judges of High Courts in consultation with the Chief Justice of India, except in the matter of appointment of the Chief Justice of India himself. It was suggested, that this was the immediate precursor to Article 124(2) of the Constitution, as it was originally framed.
It was pointed out, that in the above report prepared by the Constitutional Adviser, the following passage related to the judiciary:
“Regarding the removal of judges, he (Justice Frankfurter, Judge, and Supreme Court of the United States of America) drew attention to a provision which had just been proposed in New York State – the provision has since been approved and which had the support of most of the judges and lawyers in this country. The provision is reproduced below:
9-a (1) A judge of the court of appeals, a justice of the supreme court, a judge of the court of claims… (types of judges) may be removed or retired also by a court on the judiciary. The court shall be composed of the chief judge of the court of appeals, the senior associate judges of the court of appeals and one justice of the appellate division in each department designated by concurrence of a majority of the justices of such appellate division…
(2) No judicial officer shall be removed by virtue of this section except for cause or be retired except for mental or physical disability preventing the proper performance of his judicial duties, nor unless he shall have been served with a statement of the charges alleged for his removal or the grounds for his retirement, and shall have had an opportunity to be heard…
(3) The trial of charges for the removal of a judicial officer or of the grounds for his retirement shall be held before a court on the judiciary…
(4) The chief judge of the court of appeals may convene the court on the judiciary upon his own motion and shall convene the court upon written request by the governor or by the presiding justice of any appellate division…”
The above suggestion of vesting the power of impeachment, in-house by the judiciary itself, as recommended by Justice Frankfurter, was rejected.
Second draft of the Constitution
The second draft of the Constitution was placed before the Constituent Assembly on 21.2.1948. Articles 103 and 193 of the above draft, pertained to appointments of Judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts. Several public comments were received, with reference to the second draft. In this behalf, a memorandum was also received, from the Judges of the Federal Court and the Chief Justices of the High Courts which, inter alia, expressed as under:
“It seems desirable to insert a provision in these articles (Draft Articles 103(2) and 193(2) to the effect that no person should be appointed a judge of the Supreme Court or of a High Court who has at any time accepted the post of a Minister in the Union of India or in any State. This is intended to prevent a person who has accepted office of a Minister from exercising his influence in order to become a judge at any time. It is the unanimous view of the judges that a member of the Indian Civil Service should not be a permanent Chief Justice of any High Court. Suitable provision should be made in the article for this.”
It was submitted, that in response to the above memorandum, B.N. Rau made the following observations:
“It is unnecessary to put these prohibitions into the Constitution. The Attorney-General in England is invariably one of the Ministers of the Crown and often even a Cabinet Minister; he is often appointed a judge afterwards (The Lord Chancellor is, of course, both a Cabinet Minister and the head of the judiciary). In India, Sapru and Sircar were Law Members, or Law Ministers, as they would be called in future; no one would suggest that men of this type should be ineligible for appointment as judges afterwards…
Merit should be the only criterion for these high appointments; no constitutional ban should stand in the way of merit being recognized.”
It was asserted, that in the memorandum submitted by the Judges of the Federal Court and the Chief Justices of the High Courts, the following suggestions were made:
“It is therefore suggested that Article 193(1) may be worded in the following or other suitable manner: Every Judge of the High Court shall be appointed by the President by a warrant under his hand and seal on the recommendation of the Chief Justice of the High Court after consultation with the Governor of the State and with the concurrence of the Chief Justice of India… We do not think it is necessary to make any provision in the Constitution for the possibility of the Chief Justice of India refusing to concur in an appointment proposed by the President.
Both are officers of the highest responsibility and so far no case of such refusal has arisen although a convention now exists that such appointments should be made after referring the matter to the Chief Justice of India and obtaining his concurrence. If per chance such a situation were ever to arise it could of course be met by the President making a different proposal, and no express provision need, it seems to us, be made in that behalf. The foregoing applies mutatis mutandis to the appointment of the Judges of the Supreme Court, and article 103(2) may also be suitably modified.
In this connection it is not appreciated why a constitutional obligation should be cast on the President to consult any Judge or Judges of the Supreme Court or of the High Court in the States before appointing a Judge of the Supreme Court. There is nothing to prevent the President from consulting them whenever he deems it necessary to do so.”
None of the above proposals were accepted. Reference was also made to the Editor of the Indian Law Review and the Members of the Calcutta Bar Association, who made the following suggestions:
“That in clause (4) of Article 103 the words “and voting” should be deleted, as they consider that in an important issue as the one contemplated in this clause, opportunity should be as much minimized as practicable for the legislators for remaining neutral.” to which, the response of B.N. Rau was as under:
“In the Constitutions of Canada, Australia, South Africa and Ireland, a bare majority of the members present and voting suffices for the presentation of the address for removal of a judge. Article 103(4) requires a two-thirds majority of those present and voting. It is hardly necessary to tighten it further by deleting the words “and voting”.
Suggestions as to non-reduction of salaries
With reference to the suggestions regarding non-reduction of salaries of Judges, the Constitutional Adviser made the following comments:
“The constitutional safeguard against the reduction of salary of the Chief Justice and the judges of a High Court below the minimum has been prescribed in article 197 so as to prevent the Legislatures of the States from reducing the salaries below a reasonable figure. It is hardly necessary to put such a check on the power of Parliament to fix the salaries of the judges of the Supreme Court.”
The suggestions made by Pittabhi Sitaramayya and others, with reference to officers, and servants and the expenses of the Supreme Court, were also highlighted. They are extracted hereunder:
“That in article 122, for the words “the Chief Justice of India in consultation with the President” the words “the President in consultation with the Chief Justice of India” be substituted.”
The response of the Constitutional Adviser was as follows:
“The provision for the fixation of the salaries, allowances and pensions of the officers and servants of the Supreme Court by the Chief Justice of India in consultation with the President contained in clause (1) of article 122 is based on the existing provision contained in section 242(4) of the Government of India Act, 1935, as adapted. The Drafting Committee considered such a provision to be necessary to ensure the independence of the judiciary, the safeguarding of which was so much stressed by the Federal Court and the High Courts in their comments on the Draft Constitution.”
The second draft of the Constitution, was introduced in the Constituent Assembly on 4.11.1948. The Court’s attention was drawn to the discussions, with reference to appointments to the higher judiciary, including the suggestion of B. Pocker Sahib, who proposed an alternative to Article 103(2). Reference was also made to the proposal made by Mahboob Ali Baig Sahib, guarding against party influences, that may be brought to the fore, with reference to appointment of Judges.
The above suggestion was rejected by the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, who felt that it would be dangerous to enable the Chief Justice to veto the appointment of a Judge to the higher judiciary. The opinion of T.T. Krishnamachari was also to the following effect:
“[T]he independence of the Judiciary should be maintained and that the Judiciary should not feel that they are subject to favours that the Executive might grant to them from time to time and which would naturally influence their decision in any matter they have to take where the interests of the Executive of the time being happens to be concerned. At the same time, Sir, I think it should be made clear that it is not the intention of this House or of the framers of this Constitution that they want to crate specially favoured bodies which in themselves becomes an Imperium in Imperio, completely independent of the Executive and the legislature and operating as a sort of superior body to the general body politic”.
The proposals and the decision taken thereon, specially the observations made by K.T. Shah, K.M. Munshi, Tajamul Husain, Alladi Krishnaswami Aayar, Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, and finally Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had stated thus:
“Finally, BR Ambedkar said: Mr. President, Sir, I would just like to make a few observations in order to clear the position. Sir, there is no doubt that the House in general, has agreed that the independence of the Judiciary from the Executive should be made as clear and definite as we could make it by law. At the same time, there is the fear that in the name of the independence of the Judiciary, we might be creating, what my Friend Mr. T.T. Krishnamachari very aptly called an “Imperium in Imperio”.
We do not want to create an Imperium in Imperio, and at the same time we want to give the Judiciary ample independence so that it can act without fear or favour of the Executive. My friends, if they will carefully examine the provisions of the new amendment which I have proposed in place of the original article 122, will find that the new article proposes to steer a middle course. It refuses to create an Imperium in Imperio, and I think it gives the Judiciary as much independence as is necessary for the purpose of administering justice without fear or favour.”
Reference
Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association versus Union of India