Government flags collegium decision to end performance evaluation of additional judges

NEW DELHI: The government has red-flagged a decision of the Supreme Court collegium to do away with the professional evaluation of additional judges while recommending their name for promotion as permanent judge.

The decision of the collegium and the subsequent opposition to the move by the law ministry could trigger a fresh round of confrontation between the executive and the judiciary.

A senior functionary said the government has told the collegium--a body of top five judges of the apex court headed by the Chief Justice of India--that it does not agree with the decision to end the practice of evaluating the professional performance of an additional judge before recommending his or her name for evaluation as a permanent judge of a high court.

The judgements evaluation committees used to evaluate the judicial performance of additional judges till recently.

The government has urged the collegium to have a relook at its decision to end the practice of evaluating the judicial performance of additional judges.

The then Chief Justice of India J S Khehar had in March informed high court chief justices that the Supreme Court collegium has decided to end the system.

He had cited a 1981 judgement of the apex court to say that the practice of evaluating the judicial performance of additional judges ran contrary to the order.

Justice Khehar had also informed Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad of the decision to do away with the system.

The evaluation was part of the guidelines issued by the then CJI S H Kapadia in October, 2010.