How many judges have been members of the Supreme Court Collegium?

Transcript:

Have you ever wondered how many judges have been members of the Supreme Court Collegium?

We know it’s a relatively small, five member body composed of the CJI and four other senior most judges of the top court. We also know that it’s constantly changing… Every time a member judge retires, it is reconstituted to include the judge who is next in the seniority line.

Before 2017, there was no public information on the Collegium. We had no access to the recommendations it made, no access to the reasoning behind those recommendations and while we could guess current members of the Collegium, it was a challenging task to identify past members. 

Why is it important to access this information?

The Collegium is responsible for recommending names for appointment to the higher judiciary. This means it plays a significant role in shaping the composition of the court and ensuring independence of the judiciary. Over the years however, several concerns have been raised over how and why certain appointments are made or not made. Transparency of information can help restore public faith in the system, while increasing accountability and reducing the scope for arbitrary action. 

Over the past 33 years, since the Collegium was first constituted in 1993, exactly 89 SC judges have participated in the collegium. That’s 46%, nearly half of all judges (192) who served in the top court during that period. 

How did we arrive at this figure? Do we now have details of all Collegium members and their respective tenures? Yes! The Supreme Court Observer is happy to announce the first publicly available dataset on Collegium membership. From the very first Collegium led by CJI Venkatachaliah to the current one led by CJI Surya Kant, we have all the details.

Visit our website to access the complete dataset and look out for more in this series! 

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