QUESTION 2
GS2
10 marks
Critically examine the Supreme Court’s judgement on ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014’ with reference to appointment of judges of higher judiciary in India.
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7 min
150 words
What the examiner wants
Critically examine the Supreme Court's 2015 verdict striking down the NJAC and its effect on appointing higher judges.
Critically examineWeigh the strengths and the weaknesses, then give a balanced verdict.
Demand-wise check
- 1NJAC: 99th Amendment and NJAC Act (2014); six members incl. Law Minister and two eminent persons; any two could veto≈20 words
- 2Verdict (2015, 4:1): struck down as violating judicial independence, part of basic structure; collegium restored≈20 words
- 3For the verdict: protects judiciary from executive influence≈20 words
- 4Against: collegium opaque, judges appointing judges, no fixed criteria; Chelameswar's dissent; Memorandum of Procedure still pending≈20 words
- 5Way forward: transparent collegium, secretariat, published criteria≈20 words
Open in about 20 words and close in about 20.
Answer plan
Collegium backgroundNJAC designVerdict reasoningCritiqueReformsConclusion
Where marks usually go
- Not mentioning Justice Chelameswar's dissent
- Writing only the history of judges' cases
Draw this
- Timeline: First (1981), Second (1993), Third (1998) Judges cases → NJAC (2014) → verdict (2015)
Value addition
- CaseSupreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association v Union (2015): NJAC struck down 4:1; Justice Chelameswar dissented, criticising collegium opacity.Supreme Court, 2015
- CaseSecond Judges Case (1993) created the collegium with the primacy of the CJI.Supreme Court, 1993
Mapped topper copies
Reviewed public-source references related to this PYQ. Same-syllabus references are labelled separately.
- Alfred Thomas · Page 13 ↗Reviewed PYQ reference
- Aditya Srivastava · AIR 1 · Page 3 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Aditya Srivastava · AIR 1 · Page 9 ↗Same syllabus reference
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