Unveiling India's Supreme Court Collegium: Examining Diversity of Presence and Influence

Abstract

Since 1993, judges in Indian higher judiciary are appointed by a collegium of judges in the Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice. Academic scholarship on judicial diversity in India has failed to address two important issues arising out of this drastic development. Firstly, while the issue of diversity in the Indian higher judiciary has received limited attention over the years, there has been no attempt to examine the composition of the Supreme Court collegium which controls appointments to the higher judiciary. Secondly, while patterns of appointments have been analysed in relation to different Chief Justices and also the collegium vis-a-vis the executive, no attention has been paid to the specific collegiums which are responsible for the selection of judges. This has allowed the members of the collegium to exercise their power away from public scrutiny. This article unveils the group of judges who have exercised influence as members of the collegium and how this influence has been distributed amongst judges in terms of their social and professional background. Findings in this article show that membership of the collegium and influence within the collegium has not had representative diversity.