AS the Supreme Court Bar prepares itself to welcome Justice NV Ramana as the 48th chief justice of India (CJI), we need to introspect and re-affirm the role and functions of the paterfamilias of the legal fraternity in India.
The CJI would be better known as the 5th Citizen of India, and the fountainhead of justice dispensation and administration for the country. An essential feature of democracy is the separation of powers between the three principal organs of the state--the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary--as propounded by John Locke, the famous English, social contract theorist. Hence, the Judiciary is a separate and independent organ of the State. The CJI, as the head of the Indian Judiciary, gets his power from Article 124 of the Constitution, and as such, presides over the Supreme Court of India, which has a sanctioned strength of 34 judges. The role of the Judiciary, as supervised by the CJI, is to be a final arbiter of disputes among its citizenry, corporate, statutory and private bodies, and/or against the State and between states.
One of the most important functions of the CJI is that he presides over the Collegium comprising of four other senior-most judges of the Supreme Court who are vested with the power and duty to select judges for appointment to the higher judiciary. Therefore, every single judge who gets appointed during the tenure of the CJI would be credited as having been reviewed under the watch and selection process presided by him. As explained by well-known jurists, the CJI performs his duties within the framework of the Constitution and as such, acts under its provisions.
This story is from the April 12, 2021 edition of India Legal.
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This story is from the April 12, 2021 edition of India Legal.
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