The Constitution of India is the fountainhead from which all our laws derive their authority and force. This is next Article in the series on constitutional provisions in order to aid our readers in understanding them.
Application of certain provisions relating to Supreme Court to High Courts.—The provisions of clauses (4) and (5) of article 124 shall apply in relation to a High Court as they apply in relation to the Supreme Court with the substitution of references to the High Court for references to the Supreme Court.
The October, 1947 first Draft Constitution of the Constitutional Adviser specifically provided in its clause 164(4) as follows:
(4) A judge of a High Court shall not be removed from his office except by an order of the President passed on an address being presented in accordance with the procedure prescribed in this behalf by an Act of the Federal Parliament to the President by both Houses of the Federal Parliament in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.
The Draft Constitution prepared by the Drafting Committee on 21 February, 1948 in its article 194 provided for application of clauses (4) and (5) of draft article 103 (article 124 of the Constitution) relating to Supreme Court to High Courts meaning thereby that a High Court judge could also be removed from his office only according to the same procedure that applied to Supreme Court judges, i.e., by an order of the President on an address by each House of Parliament passed by a special majority during the same session. The language of the draft article and reference to article 124(4) and (5) were obviously dictated by the advisability of avoiding repetition.
When the draft article came up for discussion on 7 June, 1949 in the Constituent Assembly no amendment was moved. A suggestion was made by H.V. Kamath that the President’s order in case of High Court judges should be based on an address presented by the State Legislature and not Parliament. This met with considerable opposition and was not pursued The motion that article 194 stand part of the Constitution was adopted and draft article 194 was adopted to be added to the Constitution.2 At the revision stage, it was renumbered as article 218 of the Constitution in its present form.
