Seniority Convention in the Appointment of the Chief Justice of India: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

This paper throws light on the application of seniority convention in the appointment of the Chief Justice of India. The Constitution does not prescribe any specific criterion for appointing the Chief Justice of India and the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court gets an opportunity to become the Chief Justice ever since the inaugural of the Supreme Court of India except two departures in 1973 and 1977 when junior judges were appointed as Chief Justices by the government of then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi. In 1973, three senior judges namely Justices Shelat, Hegde, and Grover were superseded and their junior colleague Justice A N Ray was appointed Chief Justice of India. This was the impact of Kesavananda Bharathi case in which three senior judges had decided against the government and Ray delivered a pro-govt. verdict. Once again, Mrs Gandhi's government superseded Justice H R Khanna in 1977 and appointed his junior colleague Justice M H Beg as CJI. This was considered a punish for Justice Khanna's dissenting view in the in famous ADM Jabalpur case. In 1978, Justice Y V Chandrachud had a narrow escape. Since the, the seniority convention has been followed consistently in all cases of CJI's appointments. The Supreme Court of India also approved this convention in the Second judges case in 1993. All these issues and developments are covered in this paper. It also presents a critical view of this practice in the light of contemporary developments.

Keywords: Appointment, Chief Justice of India, judicial supersessions, Indira Gandhi, Justice A N Ray, Justice H R Khanna, Shanti Bhushan, ADM Jabalpur, judicial independence, seniority convention, President, Prime Minister, Law Minister, Seervai, Kesavananda Bharati case,