Supreme Court of India (SCI)Upholds Collegium System of Appointment of Judges and Rules NJAC Unconstitutional Friday Oct 16,2015

In a landmark judgement on Friday Oct 16,2015, the Supreme Court of India(SCI)has upheld the collegium system of appointment of judges and had struck down the constitutional amendment that introduced National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).

The judgement comes on a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of NJAC which brought to an end the two-decade-old collegium system of judges appointing judges in the higher judiciary.

The petitions challenging the new legislation were filed by Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA) and others contending that the new law on the selection and appointment of judges was unconstitutional and aimed at hurting the independence of judiciary.

However, the Centre had defended the introduction of the new law saying that the two-decade-old collegium system where judges appointed judges was not free from defects and got the support of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
The measure was also supported by 20 state governments which ratified the NJAC Act and the constitutional amendment

One of the contentious provisions of the new law was the inclusion of two eminent persons to the NJAC which included Chief Justice of India, two senior most judges of the apex court and the Union Law Minister.

Under the law, two eminent persons were to be nominated by a committee consisting of the Chief Justice of India, Prime Minister, and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha or where there is no such LoP, the leader of single largest Opposition Party in the House

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

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