Supreme Court Justice Dipankar Datta on Wednesday (September 23, 2026) lashed out at critics in the Union government who claim that the Collegium system of judicial appointment is an insular mechanism of “judges appointing judges”, saying the judiciary cannot always be at the receiving end of the Executive.
Justice Datta said sweeping generalisations that the Collegium acted as a law unto itself overlooked the detailed consultative process and the intrinsic role of the Executive, both at the Central and State levels, as well as intelligence and other agencies in the judicial appointment process. The judge said every judicial appointment bore the imprimatur of the President.
Names proposed by the Collegium gather dust for years. Even recommendations for transfer of judges are not acted upon by the government in many cases. “This court is left to wonder why, even after the judiciary has been relegated to playing second fiddle to the Executive in the matter of appointment of Judges, is there still a clamour to induct an outsider at the stage of selection?
Justice Datta turned the spotlight on the Union government’s “piecemeal approvals” of recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium for judicial appointments. The judge said the government has calibrated the judicial appointment system to override recommendations of the Supreme Court Collegium. Coming as it does from the side of the Executive, the argument ill-behoves its stature and is a feeble attempt to deflect attention from its own dereliction and failure,” Justice Datta said. The judge said the Supreme Court Collegium, despite the government’s conduct, continue to do its work to “avoid a head-on conflict with the Executive, left with Hobson’s choice to keep the institution running”. Justice Datta said the criticism was “unworthy”, but it was necessary to reply to Mr. Mehta “lest the silence be misunderstood as a tacit acceptance”.
