In an attempt to find a way out of the recent controversy over the elevation of judges to Supreme Court, the Law Commission has, after a suo motu study, recommended two alternatives. One is to seek a reconsideration of the three judgments of the Supreme Court related to the appointment of judges.  

And two is, enacting a law restoring the primacy of the Chief Justice of India and the power of the executive to make the appointments.

There has been a controversy over the past few weeks after the elevation of the Kerala, Madras and Patna High Courts judges, Justice H L Dattu, A K Ganguli and R M Lodha respectively, to the Supreme Court.

The government had sent back the files to the Chief Justice of India and the collegium asking the collegiums to reconsider the names. The Supreme Court however, sent back the file to the law ministry with the same names.

The present collegium system came into being after a Supreme Court judgment in 1993.

The Commission observed that the judges constituting the collegium are not conversant with the names and antecedents of the candidates and more often than not, appointments suffer from lack of adequate information.