COLLEGIUM SYSTEM REVIEW
- Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Thursday agreed to list in due course a writ petition to reconsider the Collegium system of judicial appointments to the Supreme Court and the High Courts.
- The petition sought the revival of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), which briefly gave the government an equal role along with the judiciary in the appointment of judges to the constitutional courts before it was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2015.
- The petition follows recent verbal attacks by Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on the Collegium system, calling it opaque.
- The petitioner-in-person, advocate Mathews J. Nedumpara, with other lawyers, said the Constitution Bench judgment of October 2015 had thwarted the “will of the people” by striking down the 99th Constitution Amendment Act, which introduced the NJAC mechanism.
- The petition said the 2015 judgment should be rendered void ab initio as it had revived the Collegium system.