Report No. 121
Chapter V
A Look around the World
5.1. A search for a new model must inevitably imply a bird's eye view of the models in vogue in various countries of the world. The mind must be free from bias, prejudice or predilections while looking around for various models. At any rate, no model should be totally ignored. It may be that a particular model may not be suitable for a country like India.
Any new model must be such as to be suitable to the needs and demands of consumers of justice of a developing country like India where a sizeable segment of consumers of justice comes from illiterate or semi-literate class of the society. When one is informing one's mind about the available models, there should be no inhibition against any particular model in any part of the country. It must, however, be remembered that every country may have devised its own model either a new or by historical developments to suit its requirements.
Therefore, when making the choice, other factors will have to be kept in view, such as, level of development of the society, percentage of literacy in the society, its per capita requirement of institution for dispensing justice, the capacity of the marginal class to spend for the service of rendering justice and other allied factors. This will be the general background within which a search for a model may be made.
5.2. There are two known methods employed the world over in the selection of judges, namely, nomination and election. Some countries have adopted both, such as in U.S.A. both the systems are operating at different levels. In United Kingdom, nomination is the only known method of selecting judges. In U.S.S.R. and some Eastern block countries who have adopted a Soviet model, the elective principle is applied for selection of Judges at all levels as also People's Assessors, who, for all practical purposes, are judges.
Where principle of nomination is adopted, power is distributed in different bodies to nominate judges. A collateral question is, whether judges should be members of a career service as in France, or chosen from a special group of lawyers as in England, or selected through nomination from the legal profession generally as in United States of America.1
1. H.J. Abraham The Judicial Process, 22, (5th Edn., 1986).
