Memorandum of Procedure (MoP)

Subject – Polity

Context – Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Sanjib Banerjee has been abruptly transferred to head the Meghalaya High Court.

Concept –

Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) is an agreement between the judiciary and the government. It contains a set of guidelines for making appointments to the Supreme Court and High Court.
The MoP is a crucial document as the Collegium system of appointing judges is a judicial innovation that is not mandated through legislation or text of the Constitution.
The Memorandum of Procedure for judicial appointments and transfers says a proposal to transfer a High Court judge can only be initiated by the CJI, “whose opinion in this regard is determinative”.
- In addition, the views of “one or more knowledgeable Supreme Court judges” are taken.
- These views are considered by the five-member Collegium.
This system was put in place as a safeguard against arbitrary transfers at the instance of the executive.

Evolution of MoP:

The MoP evolved based on three SC decisions – the First Judges Case (1981), Second Judges Case (1993), and the Third Judges Case (1998).
In 2016, the MoP re-negotiations took place following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).
However, a judicial order can overturn the negotiations as an order of the SC is the law of the land binding the government.