NEW DELHI, Apr 16: The Supreme Court today constituted a new bench to examine validity of the law replacing the collegium system of appointment of judges, a day after recusal of Justice A R Dave from the Constitution bench hearing the case.
The name of the judge who will take the place of Justice Dave was not mentioned in the notice issued by the apex court registry which said the matter will be heard on April 21.
Besides Justice Dave, others in the five-judge bench, constituted by the Chief Justice, were Justices J Chelameswar, Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Kumar Goel.
Justice Dave, who was heading five-judge Constitution bench, had recused from the matter yesterday after the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA) and other petitioners said that since he had become a member of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) under the new law, it would not be proper for him to hear the matter.
However, the submission of senior advocate Fali Nariman, who appeared for SCAORA, was opposed by Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi and Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), which had supported the Centre in its endeavour to replace the two- decade-old collegium system of appointment of judges by judges.
Rohatgi had contended that the suggestion of SCAORA is wholly regrettable and condemnable. He was supported by SCBA President who had said that SCAORA’s objection was preposterous.
Their submission had come after Nariman had said that the provisions of the Constitution (99th amendment) Act 2014 and of the NJAC Act 2014 have been brought into force from April 13, 2015.
“As a consequence, the presiding judge on this bench, Justice A R Dave has now become (not out of choice but by force of statute) a member ex-officio of the NJAC whose constitutional validity has been challenged.
“It is respectfully submitted that it would be appropriate if it would be declared at the outset, by an order of this court, the presiding judge of this bench will take no part whatever in the proceedings of the NJAC,” Nariman had submitted.
A three-judge bench of the apex court had on April 7 referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench a batch of petitions challenging the validity of NJAC Act to replace the collegium system of appointing judges to higher judiciary.
The court had refused to stay the implementation of the law with the observation that all the issues arising out of the petitions would be decided by the Constitution Bench.
The Government had on April 13 notified the NJAC Act along with a Constitutional Amendment Act (99th Amendment Act) to give constitutional status to the new body to appoint judges.
NJAC was signed into an Act by President Pranab Mukherjee on December 31, 2014.
Under the collegium system which came into existence in 1993 after a Supreme Court judgement, five top judges of the apex court recommend transfer and elevation of judges to Supreme Court and 24 High Courts.
According to the new Article 124(A) inserted in the Constitution, two eminent persons will be nominated to the Commission as members by the committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha or where there is no such LoP, then the leader of single largest Opposition party.
One of the eminent persons will be nominated from among the persons belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, minorities or women. The eminent persons will be nominated for a period of three years and will not be eligible for re-nomination.
The NJAC will be headed by the Chief Justice of India. Two senior-most apex court judges, the two eminent persons and the Law Minister will be the members of the high-level panel.
Secretary (Justice) in the Union Law Ministry will be the convenor of the NJAC.
SCAORA, Bar Association of India (BAI) and some individual lawyers have challenged the new system of appointment of judges while the Centre has got support from SCBA and eminent jurists like T R Andhyarujina in its effort to push out collegium system of appointment of judges by the judges. (PTI)
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