Year: 2023 | Month: September | Volume: 10 | Issue: 9 | Pages: 425-438
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20230944
Transparency and Accountability in The Indian Judicial System: A Renewed Debate on Collegium System
Vibhantika Dwivedi1
1Ph.D. Research Scholar, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.
ABSTRACT
Accountability is the sine qua non of democracy. Transparency facilitates accountability. In a democratic state, every wing of state needs to be accountable and should have transparency in working to establish trust among people. Judiciary is the most important institution of the democratic state. Constitutional framers turned judiciary into the last bastion of hope. So judiciary should compulsorily have the features of transparency and accountability in its regime. The research paper progresses on the same premise. The judges of the higher courts in India, their salary and assets, their promotion, transfer all have been questioned in the recent times. A judicial construction of basic structure doctrine and collegium system for the higher judiciary finds no place in the actual text of the Constitution. There is serious clout over working of this judicially created phenomenon. For example in recent times, the promotion of few judges of the High Court to the Supreme Court was not confirmed by the Central Government despite reiteration by the Collegium. What makes the issue more serious is that the Collegium made other recommendations leaving those judges to retire. What was the rational applied? What was the opinion of the Collegium? This all is not known to anyone leaving to the serious doubt regarding the transparency of the institutions. The research paper investigates into the same issue, discusses the related case laws, and presents a solution and recommendation.
Keywords: Indian Judiciary, Appointment, Transfer, Accountability, Transparency.
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