New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused an urgent hearing of a petition to review its 2015 verdict striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act and reviving the collegium system of appointing judges.
There is no urgency to list review petition and set up a Constitution Bench urgently in the matter, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Amitava Roy and AM Khanwilker ruled.
NJAC Act,2014, would have accorded a major role to the executive in appointing judges to the higher judiciary.
A five-judge Constitution Bench of the apex court had on October 16, 2015 struck it down. the Act was meant to replace the 22-year-old collegium system of judges appointing judges.
While four out of the five judges of the constitution bench had held as unconstitutional and void both the NJAC Act and the Constitution (99th Amendment) Act 2014, Justice J Chelameswar had upheld the validity of the constitution amendment law.
"The system of appointment of Judges to the Supreme Court and Chief Justices and Judges to the High Courts, and transfer of Chief Justices and Judges of High Courts from one High Court to another, as existing prior to the Constitution (99th Amendment) Act, 2014 (called the "collegium system"), is declared to be operative," the apex court had said.
The NJAC was perceived by some in the legal fraternity as an attempt to interfere with the independence of judiciary.
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