COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS WITH REFERENCE TO USA, AUSTRALIA AND INDIA

Abstract

Appointment of judges in India in higher judiciary have been an issue since independence where even constituent assembly while drafting the constitution was in dilemma as to what method should be adopted to appoint a judge in the Supreme court and High Court. Ultimately, the power to appoint judges was given to executive to keep a check on higher judiciary to prevent nepotism and increase accountability and transparency. But this trend was reversed in 2nd judges case in 1993 when collegium system was formed by Supreme Court and President became bound to accept the recommendation of collegium system in the appointment of judges. Even SC struck down National Judicial Appointment Commission Act, 2014 (NJAC) to uphold judicial independence. In this paper author will study the judicial appointment process of 3 countries i.e., USA, Australia and India and will try to analyze the trend followed in India for appointment process by looking into the landmark cases and NJAC Act which was struck down in 2015 by SC and lastly giving recommendations to improve the appointment process to uphold transparency and accountability which is considered as sine-qua-none for good governance.