SC rejects review plea on introducing Collegium system

The Supreme Court has dismissed a review petition filed against the 1993 judgement that introduced the Collegium system, wherein judges selected and recommended appointment of judges in the high courts and the top court of the country.

A nine-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi rejected the petition filed by National Lawyers' Campaign and Reforms, represented by its secretary A C Philip and others.

The court noted there was an inordinate delay of 9071 days in filing the review petition, besides there was no ground for reconsidering the judgement.

The bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde, N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, Uday U Lalit, A M Khanwilkar and Ashok Bhushan, said in its order passed on October 17, no satisfactory explanation has been offered for delay by the petitioners.

“Though the review petition is liable to be dismissed on the ground of delay itself, yet we have carefully gone through the review petition and the papers connected therewith. We are satisfied no case for review of the judgement has been made out,” the court said in its order released on Wednesday.

In a statement, president of National Lawyers' Campaign, advocate Mathews J Nedumpara said by dismissing the plea, the Supreme Court lost a golden opportunity to correct the 1993 judgement, known as the second judge case.