'Attorney General will be acceptable in NJAC'

The lead petitioner challenging the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act on Wednesday proposed having the Attorney General in place of the law Minister on the panel to prevent any possible executive interference in judicial appointments.Throwing the suggestion to a five-judge Bench which is considering the validity of the NJAC law, senior advocate Fali Nariman, appearing for Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association, said that the Attorney General being an independent constitutional authority will be acceptable in the NJAC but not the law Minister.

The suggestion came a day after the Bench invited suggestions to make NJAC workable or in the alternative propose reforms in the collegium system. Nariman said that he is in support of having a National Judicial Commission on the lines proposed by Justice Venkatachaliah Commission with majority being of judges (CJI and two senior judges) besides law Minister and an eminent person.

About the six-member NJAC, Nariman objected as it was a quasi-judicial commission with law Minister and two eminent persons capable of overruling the decision of the CJI and two judges. As an alternate, Nariman said, “Why not have the Attorney General instead of law Minister…instead of executive influence (in NJAC) if you have an independent constitutional authority I won’t object.”

Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani who appeared for another petitioner favoured having a leader of the Bar as one of the eminent persons. But the Bench comprising Justices JS Khehar, Madan B lokur, J Chelameswar, Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Goel had reservations on this suggestion since neither the President of Supreme Court Bar Association nor Bar Association of India agreed to be part of NJAC as part of their submissions in the matter.

Jethmalani further suggested that the NJAC in its present form could accommodate views of the executive and eminent persons to ensure a broad-based consideration of names. But to give them a vote in the NJAC could lead to corruption.