The dissent by Supreme Court judge, Justice B.V. Nagarathna, against a proposal to elevate Justice Vipul Manubhai Pancholi to the top court was an appeal to protect the future of the court and credibility of the Collegium system of judicial appointments.
Justice Nagarathna, in her note, urged Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai to keep in mind, as the head of the Supreme Court Collegium and pater familias of the judicial fraternity, that decisions taken in the present would have ramifications on the future administration of justice. Her dissent drew strength from the court’s own principle that judicial appointments must be free of fear of other power centres. Executive interference in judicial appointments, as Justice Madan B. Lokur wrote in the National Judicial Appointments Commission judgment, would cripple justice administration, for the government was “unashamedly the biggest litigant in the country”.
