Growing voice in favour of reintroducing NJAC Bill

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

Recently, the Law and Justice Minister, stated that there is a growing voice in favour of reintroduction of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Bill.

Background:

• The NJAC Act, 2014 was enacted by the incumbent government to regulate the procedure to be followed by the NJAC for recommending names for appointment as Chief Justice of India and other judges of Supreme Court and Chief Justices and judges of High Courts and for their transfers.
• However, in October 2015, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional an amendment to the Constitution establishing the NJAC.
• Replying to the debate on the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2021, which was passed by the House with a voice vote, Law minister said, There has been a huge support regarding NJAC.
• The appointment process of judges in the higher judiciary is going on smoothly. From the government side, there is no effort to scuttle or to create any kind of slow down in the process of appointments.
• Some of the allegations are also not correct to say that the government is stopping some of the names recommended by the Collegium.
• The minister also appreciated the performance of the judiciary during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The NJAC 

• The National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was a proposed body which would have been responsible for the appointment and transfer of judges to the higher judiciary in India.
• The NJAC would have replaced the collegium system.
• The NJAC was a body that would have been composed of the CJI, two senior judges, the Law Minister and “two eminent personalities” appointed by the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and CJI.
• The Commission was established by Parliament in 2014 as the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act.
• Later on the NJAC was struck down as unconstitutional by the SC by a 4-1 majority (in what is sometimes referred to as the Fourth Judges Case).
• The SC branded the Commission as an infringement on judicial independence and a violation of the separation of powers. Therefore, the Collegium System was preserved.
• There were legitimate fears that the commission might have resulted in the appointment of malleable judges.

However the court invited suggestions, even from the general public, on how to improve the collegium system, broadly along the lines of –

• setting up an eligibility criteria for appointments
• a permanent secretariat to help the collegium sift through material on potential candidates
• infusing more transparency into the selection process
• grievance redressal and any other suggestion not in these four categories, like transfer of judges.

The Indian Express link-

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/in-favour-of-reintroducing-njac-bill-lok-sabha-kiren-rijiju-7663199/

Question- Write a short note on appointment procedure of judges under collegium system and what changes were proposed under NJAC?