Private Bill seeks diversity in judicial appointments, SC’s regional benches

CHENNAI: Diversity in judicial appointments, regional benches of the Supreme Court, increase in the retirement age of high court judges from 62 to 65 and the constitutional status for the collegium which selects and transfers judges — these are the salient features of a private member Bill moved by the DMK’s Rajya Sabha member P Wilson seeking necessary amendments to the Constitution. It seeks representation for candidates from SC/ST and OBCs in proportion to their population.

Wilson proposed measures to bring greater transparency to appointments in the higher judiciary. The Bill called for the establishment of permanent regional benches of the Supreme Court in Chennai, New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.




Other primary changes sought by the member included an amendment to Article 15 (prohibits discrimination) of the Constitution to allow state govts to make special provisions for socially and educationally backward classes, SCs, and STs, in proportion to their population as determined by a caste census.

In matters of judicial appointments, the member proposed amendments to Articles 124, 217, and 224 to include new clauses to ensure representation of SCs, STs, OBCs, religious minorities and women proportional to their population in judicial appointments, mandating the Union govt to frame a Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) in consultation with the Chief Justice of India (CJI) outlining appointment procedures.

“State govts must be consulted when appointing judges to the HCs and the apex court. The Centre must act on collegium recommendations within 60 days, and within 30 days if reiterated,” Wilson said.

This apart, the Bill proposed increasing the retirement age of HC judges from 62 to 65 years. Another main ingredient of the Bill was the proposal for changes to census powers under the seventh schedule of the Constitution.

The Bill sought to modify the legislative powers relating to the census by removing the census from the Union list and adding it to the concurrent list of the Constitution, allowing both the Union and state govts to conduct census exercises.