The five-judge Constitution Bench on Wednesday declared itself fit to hear the challenge against the newly introduced NJAC law. The Bench presided by Justice JS Khehar found no substance in the charge of conflict of interest leveled against him as he was part of the Supreme Court collegium and possibly, a member of NJAC in the near future.
Issuing notices to Centre and all States on a bunch of petitions filed by Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association, led by senior advocate Fali Nariman, the Bench, also comprising Justices J Chelameswar, Madan lokur, Kurien Joseph and Adarsh Goel, decided to sit on Thursday to consider interim directions with regard to Additional Judges of High Courts whose tenure is ending or has come to an end and who will be in a state of limbo considering the vacuum that exists with the collegium replaced by the NJAC, which is yet to start operation.
Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi agreed to take instructions even as he informed the court that the collegium had become redundant with the notification of the NJAC Act and the accompanying 99th Constitutional Amendment. He said that the Government is all set to make NJAC fully functional and the process was 90 per cent complete.
The Bench informed Rohatgi that considering what Centre had to say, it will decide whether to pass any orders for the present. “You can consider vesting (appointment) temporarily in collegium or maybe we will examine it. But we need to decide as we can’t leave them (additional judges waiting to be made permanent) in limbo.”
Since the court faced the uphill task of hearing an array of petitioners on one side coupled with Centre and all states on the other, the court is likely to fix a time frame for hearing the petitions. On Wednesday, the court heard all parties objecting to Justice Khehar’s continuation on the Bench and found no substance to entertain even a likelihood of bias. Nariman, who raised objection on Tuesday creating a flutter, withdrew his reservation on coming to know that Justice Khehar had volunteered to stay away from collegium proceedings.