Justice Manmohan On Collegium System: "Lots of Challenges, Really Needs To Be Examined"

Supreme Court judge Justice Manmohan has called for a thorough examination of the Collegium System. "I am finding a lot of challenges within the system. To put it mildly and honestly, it really needs to be examined," the judge said on Saturday while speaking at the 1st Supreme Court Bar Association National Conference 2026.

Speaking at a session titled "From Pendency to Prompt Justice: Rethinking Justice Delivery In Indian Courts", Justice Manmohan questioned why the recommendations of a High Court Chief Justice are not treated with confidence.

"I have always wondered if the chief justice of a state has recommended one person as a judge why should there be any debate about that name? The chief justice of a court is not to be trusted. How do you get talent? You have to trust the man at the spot. The chief justice of a state is not an ordinary officer. He's a constitutional functionary and we don't trust him. The Supreme Court collegium will sit on it. Then the government will give its advice. The IB will give its advice. This mistrust in the system is costing us dearly. I think we need to debate the collision system threadbare." Justice Manmohan said.

Justice Manmohan went on to observe that judges cannot be scared of with transfers. "A high court judge can only function when he has full power and full authority. He cannot be scared of a transfer. You have to empower him. You cannot emasculate a high court judge by putting the fear of transfer in him. I think this is a very serious issue which needs to be debated. I have seen it in some courts and I really am quite disturbed about it and I think a real good debate needs to happen on this," Justice Manmohan added.

On the problem of pendency, the Supreme Court judge highlighted that it is not just about numbers. He said, "It is far deeper. It is about insufficient resources. It is about structural insufficiencies. It's also about archaic laws. It's also about how on the administrative side we tend to handle issues."

Referring to the resource gap that exists, Justice Manmohan recollected from one of the days when he had gone on a round of a district court in Delhi on a Saturday. "I went there in the morning at about 11:00 and I find that there is a huge crowd outside one courtroom and the judge is not sitting there. So I went inside found out where what's happened. Why is the judge not sitting? Why is he late? I was told that he was sitting in his chamber. So I went I met him. I told him there is a huge crowd outside the courtroom. Why are you sitting in your chamber? He said, "Chief, there is one PP which two courtrooms share. So till the public prosecutor has finished his cases in the other matter in the other courtroom, he will not be available in my court. So how do I handle the bail cases without the PP being present on a daily basis." And people say that we are asking for too much. We need the resources. They are required at the ground level....Every day a judge has to innovate and with what resources."

Justice Manmohan further said that in today's world unfortunately the panel lawyers who are appointed on the panel of public sector or of the state or of the government are not being recruited on merit. "Take any state government. Let's take the case of Delhi. whether it is a party A, B party or C party. In fact, there are only A B C parties in Delhi and the panel lawyers are virtually recruited on party lines unfortunately. So does a judge get proper assistance to decide a complex issue and yet because his name is attached to that judgment he will try to do his best. He'll have to do work on his own. He'll have to do research on his own. Is the system being fair to the judge? I think we have to all analyze that and we have to ponder over it", he said.