The five newly appointed judges to the Supreme Court of India took their oath on Monday, administered by the Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud. The appointments of Justices Pankaj Mithal, Sanjay Karol, PV Sanjay Kumar, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, and Manoj Misra were recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium on December 13, 2022 and cleared by the Law Minister on February 4, 2023.
The appointment of the new judges comes amid controversy surrounding the collegium system, which has become a major point of contention between the Supreme Court and the government. The system, which allows judges to appoint judges, has sparked intense debate, leading to sharp comments from Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, who has described it as “alien” to the Indian Constitution.
The issue of the collegium system has also been questioned by Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, who has criticized the Supreme Court’s striking down of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act in 2015. The government had attempted to replace the Collegium system with a new method for appointing Supreme Court and High Court judges through the NJAC law.
