The Supreme Court (SC) will decide on the challenge against the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) on Friday.
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After marathon arguments involving virtually the who’s who of the nation’s legal fraternity, a five-judge constitution bench comprising Justice J S Kehar, Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Madan B Lokur, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice A K Goel reserved their orders on July 15. Each judge will pronounce a separate judgment.
However, the Centre had defended the introduction of the new law saying that the two-decade-old collegium system where judges appointed judges was not free from defects and got the support of the Supreme Court Bar Association. It would comprise of two senior most Judges of the Supreme Court, Union Minister of Law and Justice, two “eminent persons” to be nominated by a committee of the Prime Minister of India, the Chief Justice of India, and the Leader of the Opposition in the House of the People.
This is contrary to 1993 and 1998 nine judges verdict which had said that CJI will have the primacy in the judicial appointment.
The seven member panel of judges hearing the suit by the Ghana Bar Association challenging the President’s appointment of Justice Yaw Appau and Gabriel Scott Pwamang have given the AG a fourteen days ultimatum to file their response to the suit brought against it. The NJAC was signed into an Act by President Pranab Mukherjee on December 31, 2014. NJAC can lead to risky situations, Supreme Court says The shortlisted candidates are scrutinized by a collegium of five seniormost judges of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of India before cleared for appointment. The government had envisioned the body as an alternative to the collegium system of appointment of judges to the higher judiciary. Jaconette also is now serving as Chief Judge of the Calhoun County Judicial Council, made up of the chief judges of all three courts and the courts’ administrators.
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