NEW DELHI, Dec 31:
The Constitutional Amendment Bill, paving the way for the scrapping of the much-criticised 20-year-old collegium system by which judges appoint judges to the higher judiciary, received the Presidential nod today.
The Constitution (121st amendment) Bill, passed by Parliament in August this year has received President’s assent, official sources said.
Before the task of selecting and transferring Supreme Court and High Court judges finally shifts from the collegium, to a committee headed by the Chief Justice of India, Government has to get the President’s assent to the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Bill, an enabling legislation.
The Government has has to notify the date from which the the law will come into force.
The NJAC Bill, which was also passed in August by the Parliament along with the 121st Constitutional Amendment Bill, provides for the procedure to be followed by the NJAC for recommending persons for appointment of Judges of the Supreme Court, and Chief Justice and other Judges of the 24 High Courts.
The Constitutional Amendment Bill grants constitutional status to the composition of the proposed Commission. It was done following demands by jurists and judges who felt that without a constitutional status, the composition could be altered by a future Government by an ordinary legislation.
The Government is likely to send the NJAC Bill to the President for his assent in the coming days. Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said that he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday to discuss the next course of action.
“I will meet the Prime Minister day after tomorrow to discuss the issue. We will decide after that. But, we will do it soon,” he said in reply to a question on when the Law Ministry will send the NJAC Bill to President.
The Law Ministry had sent the Constitutional Amendment Bill to President for his assent receiving ratification by 17 out of 29 State legislatures. A Constitutional Amendment Bill requires ratification by at least 50 per cent of the States.
The Uttar Pradesh Assembly suggested an amendment to seek a bigger and clearer role for State Governments in the selection of judges of High Courts. But Law Ministry officials said the amendment has little value as “ratification is not conditional”.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had wanted the Centre to clearly mention in the NJAC Bill that the Governor will have to follow the advice of the State Government in the appointment of High Court judges.
The then Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had written back to Banerjee pointing out that under the Constitution, the Governor takes decisions on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.
The NJAC has the Chief Justice of India as chairperson and two senior-most judges of the Supreme Court as members, apart from the Law Minister and two eminent personalities, of which one of them would be nominated from among the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, minorities, Other Backward Classes or women.
The eminent persons will be selected by a panel comprising the Prime Minister, the CJI and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha or leader of the single-largest opposition party in the lower house.
But the Bill is not without its critics. Shortly after Parliament gave its nod to the two bills, four public interest litigations in the Supreme Court had sought declaration of the bills as unconstitutional as they allegedly violated the basic structure of the Constitution by infringing on judicial independence.
But a Bench led by Justice A R Dave had refused to entertain the petitions, observing that it was too premature for the court to intervene as the Constitution Bill was yet to be ratified by the States. However, the Bench had observed that the parties could move the apex court on the same ground at an appropriate stage. (PTI)
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