CJI Surya Kant Says SC Will Consider Petition to Revive NJAC and Replace Collegium System
New Delhi: Ten years after it had rejected the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) act, the Supreme Court on Wednesday (November 26) said that it will consider a plea to revive the NJAC to replace the present collegium system that is followed for appointment of judges in the higher judiciary.
After an oral request for the NJAC was made by advocate Mathews Nedumpara during the hearing Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant made the remarks, reported New Indian Express.
“Yes we will see,” said CJI Kant when Nedumpara requested the top court to to reconsider the collegium system and reopen the NJAC judgment. He added that previous benches did not consider his submissions adequately.
“Ab hum Hindi mein jawab denge ..jaan boojhkar yeh kar rahe ho tum ..hum Hindi me baat karenge (Now I’ll answer in Hindi… you’re doing this deliberately. We will speak in Hindi.),” said the CJI in response.
After Nedumpara said that he did not understand Hindi, CJI replied, “We will consider the plea.”
The NJAC was introduced through a constitutional amendment to replace the collegium system with one that would give the executive a greater say in judicial appointments.
Back in 2015, the Supreme Court had struck down the NJAC act in a majority of 4:1 and declared the Constitutional Amendment as “unconstitutional and void”. The top court had ruled that the collegium system, as it existed before the NJAC, would again become “operative.”
The bench, however, had said that all was not well even with the collegium system of “judges appointing judges”, and that it was time to improve the system of judicial appointments.
“Help us improve and better the system. You see the mind is a wonderful instrument. The variance of opinions when different minds and interests meet or collide is wonderful,” Justice J.S. Khehar had said at the time.
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