Who Appoints Judges? Judicial Independence and Democratisation of the Judiciary in India

Abstract

Ueda analyses political relations between the Indian government and the Supreme Court of India over judicial appointments, and explains the judicial system reforms that have occurred under the Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi governments from the point of view of judicial democratisation. The Modi government sought to achieve greater democratic control over the courts and make the judiciary less independent by setting up a commission to administer judicial appointments to higher courts that included a member selected from groups experiencing social discrimination. The commission can be viewed as a ‘contact zone’ between institutional democratisation of the judiciary from above and democratic institutionalisation of human rights from below. Whether institutional democratisation of judicial appointment from above eventually crystallises will have a profound impact on how the institutionalisation of human and collective rights from below, examined in other chapters of this book, proceeds.