NEW DELHI, Apr 22: Setting at rest issues, the Supreme Court cleared the decks were for commencing the hearing on the validity of the new law on appointment of judges with a Constitution Bench rejecting demands for recusal of judges.
“Justice J S Khehar will not recuse himself from hearing,” Justice J Chelameswar said on behalf of the five-judge bench which overruled the objection on Justice Khehar heading the bench.
Justice Chelameswar said the reasons for the non-recusal of Justice Khehar will be delivered later.
The bench, also comprising Justices Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Kumar Goel, besides Justices Khehar and Chelameswar, said it will commence the hearing on April 27 to examine the validity of the new law–National Judicial Appointments Commission Act–which has been notified. It replaces the two-decade-old collegium system of appointment of judges to the higher judiciary.
The court issued notices to the Centre, all state Governments and union territories asking them to be ready with the matter which “purely involves the questions of law”.
The bench also asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to take instruction from competent authority about the judges, particularly about additional judges in high courts whose tenure is coming to an end in the immediate future when the matter will be pending before the court.
It said it will hear the matter tomorrow and after knowing the stand of the Centre. It will pass an interim order as this is a matter of concern and their fate cannot be kept in limbo.
Justice Khehar made it clear that the bench headed by him would like to complete the hearing and dispose of the matter in a particular time frame.
14 working days, starting from Monday onwards, would be sufficient to conclude the arguments and if required a day or two will be used during the summer vacation, he said.
A consensus was evolved that the petition filed by the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA), in which senior advocate Fali S Nariman is appearing, will be the lead case among the batch of petitions challenging the validity of Constitution (99th amendment) Act 2014 and the NJAC Act, 2014, which pushes out the two-decade old collegium system of appointment of judges by the judges.
The Attorney General will be the lead counsel to defend the law which has got support from the Supreme Court Bar Association and states like Madhya Pradesh and Haryana for which senior counsel K K Venugopal and Harish Salve appeared.
They have supported the stand of the Centre that Justice Khehar should continue as the head of the bench which should lay down guidelines on recusal of judges from the bench on grounds of conflict of interest and doctrine of bias.
While concluding the five-hour long hearing, the bench said the Secretary General would ensure that the lead petition of the SCAORA is posted on the court’s website which can be downloaded by the counsel for states.
The bench said other petitioners can file written submissions and if there was any different issue, it will decide whether an opportunity can be given for advancing the arguments separately.
The Constitution bench could not commence hearing so far with issues of conflict of interest and doctrine of bias cropping up on the last two occasions.
Firstly, Justice A R Dave, the second senior-most judge, had recused himself from heading the bench on April 15 when Nariman and some other petitioners had submitted that it was not proper for him to preside the bench as there would be a conflict of interest since he will be the member of the NJAC and was also the member of the collegium.
Later, Chief Justice of India H L Dattu has set up a new bench headed by Justice Khehar, who is the third senior most judge.
However, his presiding over the bench was also opposed on the same grounds of conflict of interest and bias but instead of going into the question of the validity of the new law, the five judges said it will settle the issue as to which judges can be a part of the Constitution bench.
The issues of conflict of interest and bias have been flagged because the NJAC will be headed by the CJI, two senior-most apex court judges, the two eminent persons and the Law Minister will be the members of the high-level panel. (PTI)
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