‘I apologize’, CJI Chandrachud refuses to hear petition to abolish collegium system
The Supreme Court refused to consider listing a petition requesting the abolition of the collegium system for the appointment of judges in the High Court. A bench of Chief Justice (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra noted the argument of lawyer Mathews Nedumpara that his writ petition requesting the abolition of the collegium system should be listed for hearing.
The lawyer said, ‘I have mentioned it several times. The registry has rejected it and it is not listing my petition.’ The CJI said, ‘The Registrar (related to listing) has said that once the Constitution Bench has given its verdict on something, the petition under Article 32 (under this article, a petition can be filed directly in the Supreme Court on the basis of violation of fundamental rights) is not admissible. There are other remedies against the order of the Registrar.’
The lawyers said that the review petition against the decision on the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was dismissed in chamber. He said, ‘This is a question of the credibility of the institution. The collegium system will have to be abolished.’ On this the Chief Justice said, ‘I apologize.’ The five-judge Constitution Bench had declared the NJAC Act and the 99th Constitutional Amendment unconstitutional on October 17, 2015 and rejected it. It had a provision to give leaders and civil society the final authority in the process of appointment of High Court and Supreme Court judges.
The bench had said that independent judiciary is part of the basic structure of the Constitution. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had passed the NJAC Bill to remove the collegium system. Under this system, a group of judges decides who will be the judges of the High Court and Supreme Court.
The NJAC had proposed to form a six-member body for this, in which the CJI and two senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, the Union Law and Justice Minister and two eminent persons were to be made members.
