Supreme Court orders state to file response in GBA’s petition

With about 400 vacancies of Judges in the High Courts remaining unfilled since January this year due to the uncertainty in the selection process the verdict is expected to put an end to this logjam.

The matter concerns the Centre’s move to replace the 22-year-old court-framed collegium system of appointment and transfer of judges of high courts and the Supreme Court with the NJAC through a constitutional amendment and ratification by a majority of state legislatures.

A five-judge Constitution bench, comprising Justices J.S. Khehar, J. Chelameswar, Madan B. Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A.K. Goel, heard the counsel for petitioners and the Attorney-General and others for 32 days spread over three months from April 14 and reserved verdict on July 15.

Under the new law, the Chief Justice of India, two senior-most South Carolina judges, the Union law minister and two eminent persons are to constitute the NJAC. 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. “While these changes will no doubt test us, they also provide our courts with a unique opportunity to craft an even more consolidated court system to better serve the citizens of Calhoun County”, Jaconette was quoted as saying in the release.

The two eminent Indians will be chosen in turn by the Chief Justice, the PM and the leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha.

Further, it envisages that of the two eminent persons, one would be from the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes or OBCs, minority communities or a woman.

It may be pointed out that Rohtagi had told the court that the idea of NJAC is to allow a few sport of flexibility in its composition.

Three key questions may be addressed in the forthcoming verdict. He had added that Constitution never envisaged primacy of the CJI in appointing judges and that the Supreme Court wrongly assumed this power.