New Delhi: The Supreme Court Judges on Thursday decided to form a committee comprising of two Supreme Court Judges to evaluate Additional Judges of High Court’s the judgments to decide upon their promotion as permanent Judges.
In a meeting of the Supreme Court Collegium, the Judges decided to remove the earlier practice of High Court Judges reviewing the performances of additional High Court Judges.
The Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph have partially modified its court order dated 3 March, 2017.
They modified court the order that ends the professional evaluation practice of Additional Judges which was a practiced rule since 2010.
As per the new guidelines issued by the then Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia in October 2010, a committee formed by High Court Chief Justices was to be practiced to evaluate the additional Judges judgments.
The committee was seen as a peer review which consisted of High Court Judges. The Collegium has ended this review system in March and ordered a new committee of Supreme Court Judges to review the evaluation.
The Government has urged the Collegium to reconsider to end the evaluating review of the Additional Judges.
The Court’s Collegium proceedings were uploaded on Supreme Court’s website which read: “The Collegium had unanimously taken a decision on 3rd March, 2017 to withdraw with immediate effect the last sentence of guideline No.2 issued by the then Chief Justice of India on 30th October, 2010, regarding constitution of Judgment Committees by Chief Justices of High Courts for assessment/ evaluation of judgments of Additional Judges of High Courts for purpose of determining their suitability for appointment as Permanent Judges. The decision was communicated to the Minister for Law & Justice by the then Chief Justice of India by DO letter No. CC/HC/2017/2251A dated April 16, 2017”.