F. Judicial Appointments (The "Judges Cases")
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| Case | Year | Bench | Holding |
|---|---|---|---|
| S.P. Gupta v. Union of India (First Judges case) | 1981 | 7-judge | Held the executive's opinion prevails over the CJI's in judicial appointments/transfers (CJI's view is only "consultative," not binding); separately, expanded PIL locus standi to allow public-spirited citizens/lawyers to petition on behalf of those who cannot approach the Court themselves. |
| SCAORA v. Union of India (Second Judges case) | 1993 | 9-judge | Overruled S.P. Gupta on primacy — held the CJI's opinion (formed in consultation with senior judges, the "collegium") has primacy over the executive's in appointments. Origin of the collegium system. |
| In re Special Reference No. 1 of 1998 (Third Judges case) | 1998 | 9-judge (advisory) | Expanded the collegium from CJI alone to CJI + 4 senior-most judges; held recommendations made without proper consultation within the collegium are not binding on the executive. |
| SCAORA v. Union of India (NJAC case / Fourth Judges case) | 2015 | 5-judge | 4:1 — struck down the 99th Constitutional Amendment and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014; held judicial primacy in appointments is Basic Structure; restored the collegium system. |
Notes. All four cases share essentially one petitioner name pattern (S.P. Gupta / SCAORA — the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association) which is exactly why exams test them by ordinal ("First," "Second," "Third," "Fourth Judges case") rather than by full case name — memorise the sequence, not just the citations.
Mnemonic. "Gupta Gave it away, SCAORA Seized it, the Reference Refined it, NJAC got Nixed" — First (S.P. Gupta, 1981, executive primacy) → Second (SCAORA, 1993, collegium born) → Third (Reference, 1998, collegium expanded to 5) → Fourth/NJAC (2015, NJAC struck down, collegium restored). Even simpler: just count 1-2-3-4 on your fingers and recite "executive wins, collegium born, collegium grows, collegium survives."
Practice Recall. Before reading on: name all four "Judges cases" in order and, for each, the one-line outcome.
Answer: First/S.P. Gupta (1981) — executive's view prevails, CJI merely consultative. Second/SCAORA (1993) — CJI's collegium view gets primacy; collegium system begins. Third/Reference (1998) — collegium expanded to CJI + 4 senior judges. Fourth/NJAC (2015) — 99th Amendment and NJAC Act struck down, collegium restored.