The collegium system allows judges to appoint and transfer themselves. It has been debated for long, and sometimes blamed for tussles between the judiciary and the executive, and the slow pace of judicial appointments. Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju on Saturday (September 17) said the collegium system of appointments to the higher judiciary needs to be reconsidered in view of the concerns about the process. “There is a need to think about the collegium system so that appointments in higher judiciary can be accelerated,” the Minister said at the inauguration of a conference in Rajasthan, PTI reported. He later told reporters, “The system which is in place is causing trouble and everyone knows it. Further discussion will be held about what and how it has to be done. I put my views in front of everyone where judges, law officers and invitees were there,” the report said. Rijiju’s statements reopen a longstanding debate over the process of appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts of India. An attempt by the government to bring a law that would give the executive a strong say in the appointments was struck down by the Supreme Court several years ago. Thereafter, in 2019, a nine-judge Bench of the court dismissed a plea for a review of its 1993 verdict in the so-called ‘Second Judges Case’, which is widely understood to be instrumental in establishing the existing “collegium system” of appointing judges in the higher judiciary. (See below). It is the way by which judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are appointed and transferred. The collegium system is not rooted in the Constitution or a specific law promulgated by Parliament; it has evolved through judgments of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court collegium is a five-member body, which is headed by the incumbent Chief Justice of India (CJI) and comprises the four other seniormost judges of the court at that time. A High Court collegium is led by the incumbent Chief Justice and four other seniormost judges of that court. By its very nature, the composition of the collegium keeps changing, and its members serve only for the time they occupy their positions of seniority on the Bench before they retire. Judges of the higher judiciary are appointed only through the collegium system, and the government has a role only after names have been decided by the collegium. Names that are recommended for appointment by a High Court collegium reaches the government only after approval by the CJI and the Supreme Court collegium. The role of the government in this entire process is limited to getting an inquiry conducted by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) if a lawyer is to be elevated as a judge in a High Court or the Supreme Court. The government can also raise objections and seek clarifications regarding the collegium’s choices, but if the collegium reiterates the same names, the government is bound, under Constitution Bench judgments, to appoint them as judges.