Constitutional Law II

Topic : Appointment, Tenure and Removal of Judges

Priyanka M D
3.2nd LLB
 Mainly our country works with three Tier judicial system. The courts interpret

the law in the society in wider sense. The Indian government runs according to

the provisions of constitution of India. India has judicial system in three ways

supreme court , high court and subordinate courts. The criteria for the
Introduction appointment for each court is totally different. The supreme court is the

highest authority which has single integrated system with the high court at the

state level. Below the high court there are different subordinate courts such as

District courts deals with the civil cases where are the sessions court decide

criminal cases.
  Article 124 provides for the establishment and constitution of Supreme
Court of India , which is the apex court of India. It was established on 28th
January 1950 i.e. two days after the commencement of the constitution.

The Supreme  Article 124(1) “ There shall be supreme court of India consisting of a

Court Chief Justice of India and until parliament by law prescribes a large
number of not more than 7 judges.”
  Under article 124 of Indian constitution which provides for “
constitution and establishment of supreme court clause (1)
 States that the supreme court of India compromises a Chief
Justice and another number of Judges as a Parliament law

Composition of prescribes

Supreme Court  Originally the other number of judges were “7” excluding the
chief justice of India
 Presently the total number of judges In the Supreme Court are
34 including the Chief Justice of India
  He must be a citizen of India
 He / she must be have 5 years of experience as a judge in the
High Court
 It is not necessary that this 5 year of experience must be in a ‘
single’ High Court.
Qualification  It can be possible that a person has 2 years experience in some
Required high court and 3 years of experience in some other courts
 He / she must have 10 years of experience as an advocate in the
high court
 He/ she is in the opinion of the President a distinguished Jurist
 In order to understand the present ‘ method ‘ use to appoint a person
as a judge of the Supreme Court , we need to divide the period as
follows:
Appointment of
Judges(Article 124)  Procedure of appointment of supreme court judge before 99th
amendment
 Procedure of appointment of supreme court judge after 99th
amendment
 Current position of appointment of supreme court judge
  A judge of SC can hold the
office until he attains the age of
Term office of 65 years ( In the case of
SC judge resignation the SC judge needs
to submit the letter to the
president)
Removal / Impeachment
of SC judge
• A judge can be removed only by
the President on the grounds of
proved misbehaviour or
incapacity
• Approval of the 2/3rd majority
of the both the houses is also
needed to go ahead with the
impeachment of the SC judge
  Jurisdiction :It is the power that a court of law exercises to
carry out judgements and enforce laws
a. Original jurisdiction
Powers and b. Appellate jurisdiction
jurisdiction of SC c. Advisory jurisdiction
d. Revisory jurisdiction
e. Judicial review
 The high courts of India
are the highest courts of The composition of high
appellate jurisdiction in court
each state and the union • Article 214 Head of the state Judicial
The high court territory of India. The High Administration
• Comprises of a chief justice and such
court deals with the
other justice as the President may
criminal cases and the civil from time to time appoint
cases with in the state
 President appoints every
judge of a High Court ,
Appointment including the chief justice.
of judges in  High Court CJ: in
consultation with the
High Court CJ of India and the
(Article 217) Governor of the State
 HC Judges: in
consultation with the
HC CJ, Governor of the
state and CJ of India
Tenure of the High Court
Judge
• Till 62 years of age
• May resign by writing letter to the
president
Qualification
• Citizen of India
• An advocate of high court
• Practice should be 10 years
  By the President on an address by both Houses of Parliament,
Removal of the presented in the same session for proved misbehavior or
High Court incapacity

Judge (Article  Supported by a majority of total membership in each house

217(1)(b))  By 2/3rd majority of members of house present and voting

  Powers throughout the territories
(jurisdiction)
Article 227
 To issue directions , orders or writs, According to this article 227 every
including writs in the nature of Habeas court have superintendence (control)
Powers of High Corpus , Mandamus, Prohibition, Over all courts and tribunals.
Court (Article Certiorari and Quo-Warranto or for any
of them, for the enforcement of any of
Throughout the territories in relation
to which it exercises its jurisdiction
226) the right conferred by Fundamental
Rights and for any other purpose
against any person or authority
including in appropriate cases any
government with in these territories
  HC should be satisfied that
 A case pending in a court subordinate to it
Transfer of
 Involves substantial question of law
certain Cases
 As to the interpretation of the constitution
(Article 228)  The determination of which is necessary for the
disposal of the cases
  The District Court or Additional District court exercises
jurisdiction both on original side and appellate side in civil and
The district criminal matters arising in the District.

court  The territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction in civil matters is

usually vested in the civil courts
  District judges : appointed by the governor of the state with the
advice of the state chief justice
Composition of  Additional district judges
District Courts  Assistant District Judges
  Must be a citizen of India ( 5 years)
 A judge of a high court or of two or more such courts in

Qualification succession
 An advocate of a high court of two or more courts in
succession for at least 10 years
  The district judge is handed over by a district judge
 The district judge is appointed by the state governor with on the
advice of chief justice of the high court of the state
Appointment of  In addition to the district judge , there may be few number of
district court additional district judges and assistant district judges asper the

judge work load

 7 year practice as a lawyer
Removal of
district court  A district judge or additional district judge may be

judge removed from his office by the governor on conformation

from the high court collegium.
  Original and appellate jurisdiction in both civil and criminal
matters
 Administrative functions
Powers of  Supervises all subordinate courts
district court  Maintain the leaves and service records of all those working
under district court
Thank You….