SC says NJAC Law Unconstitutional and Void

New Delhi, Oct 16: On Friday, in a jolt to the government, the Supreme Court got struck down with the constitution’s 99th amendment and the NJAC Act as unconstitutional, restoring the Collegium system for appointment of judges to the higher judiciary.

While the experts said the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was against the constitution, union Law Minister D.V.Sadananda Gowda said that he would consult Prime Minister Narendra Modi and have legal advice on the issue, while his colleague Ravi Shankar Prasad said parliamentary sovereignty has got a setback.

In a “collective order”, the constitution bench of Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice J. Chelameswar, Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said the 99th amendment and the NJAC Act were unconstitutional and invalid.

“The constitution (99th Amendment) Act, 2014 is declared unconstitutional and void” and “The National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014, is declared unconstitutional and void”, the court said.

Gowda said while talking to reporters after the judgement: “I will go through the text in detail and get advices from our prime minister, legal experts and others.”

A surprised looking minister said that the act represented the desire of the people as it was supported by all the members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

An earlier law minister, Prasad said the NJAC was a part of judicial reforms which was implemented after deep consideration.

“In our view, this exercise was done after deep consideration of more than 20 years which was part of judicial reforms. We will go through the judgement and come out with a structured response,” he told reporters.

Legal experts also said that the Collegium system of appointing judges was not flawless though the NJAC was against the constitution.

“I am not saying that this system is flawless… this has its own drawbacks. But between the two evils, this is lesser evil,” renowned advocate Kamini Jaiswal said, referring to the Collegium system.

The constitutional amendment and the NJAC Act were brought to replace the 1993 Collegium system for the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and high courts, but Friday’s verdict restored the latter.

“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 collegium System), is declared to be operative,” said the court order.

The court rejected the request by the government for referring the matter to a larger bench for reconsideration of second judges (1993) and the third judges (1998) that had put in place the Collegium system.

The court sought suggestions from the senior counsel who had appeared in the matter after pronouncing the order and bar for improved and transparent functioning of the Collegium system.

November 3 is the next hearing date for the same.