Senior Advocate S Basavaraj has urged the Supreme Court collegium to adopt the system of “objective assessment of relative merit” of the candidates for elevation as High Court Judges.
The letter reads;
The procedure of circulating the judgments of the High Court Judges prospective candidates and making an objective assessment of their relative merit and scrutinising the judgments authored by High Court judges who are under consideration for elevation to the Supreme Court was introduced recently.
I am given to understand that the collegiums of various High Courts including the Karnataka High Court have sent names of learned Advocates for being elevated as Judges of the High Courts.
In this regard I respectfully request the Collegium of the Hon’ble Supreme Court to adopt similar criteria for appointment of High Court judges from the Bar. This suggestion/comment is prompted by the fact that many candidates have not appeared or argued any case let alone being part of reported Judgments.
While considering the proposal for Senior Advocate designation, the Committee thoroughly scrutinises relative merit of the learned Advocates.
This includes scrutinising the cases argued by them, reported judgements, articles and probono work.
Hence, I request your goodself to kindly adopt an objective assessment of the relative merit of the Advocates. The best way to assess is to call for details which are required for designation of a Senior Advocate.
Daksha Legal 