Collegium System to Continue For Appointment of Judges as Supreme Court Dismisses Review Petition on NJAC

New Delhi, December 1: The Supreme Court on Saturday dismissed a petition seeking review of its 2015 verdict that struck down the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) Act for the appointment of judges. A five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, said the review petition was dismissed on the grounds of delay.

“There is a delay of 470 days in filing the present review petition for which no satisfactory explanation has been offered. The review petition is liable to be dismissed on the grounds of delay alone,” the top court said. “Even otherwise, we have carefully gone through the review petition and the connected papers. We do not find any merit in the same,” the bench added. SC Collegium Recommends 3 Judicial Officers as Uttarakhand HC Judges.

In 2015, the Supreme Court had struck down the controversial National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act for the appointment of judges. The NJAC act was passed by Modi government to end decades-old collegium system where judges appointed judges, an opaque process unique to India. The top court had abolished the 99th Constitution Amendment Act, calling it unconstitutional.

While four out of the five judges of the constitution bench had held as unconstitutional and void both the NJAC Act and the 99th Constitution Amendment Act 2014, Justice J Chelameswar (now retired) had upheld the validity of the constitution amendment law.

The NJAC was supposed to be a body comprising Chief Justice of India (Chairperson), two other senior judges of the Supreme Court next to the Chief Justice of India, Union Law Minister and two eminent persons chosen by a committee formed of CJI, Prime Minister and the leader of Opposition, to recommend persons for the appointment of CJI, judges of the Supreme Court, Chief Justices of high courts and other judges of high courts.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 01, 2018 07:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).