The President of India has given his assent to the Constitution (121st Amendment) Bill, 2014, and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014, on 31 December 2014. Accordingly, these Bills are now renamed as the Constitution (99th Amendment) Act, 2014 and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014, respectively. Both these Acts have been published in the Gazette of India on 31 December 2014. The Constitution of India accordingly stand amended and the Collegium system of appointing judges to the Supreme Court and high courts will now be replaced by appointments made through the National Judicial Appointments Commission. However, as per respective Section 1 of these Acts, both these Acts will come into force from a date to be notified in the official gazette by the Central Government. It is expected that the date of coming into force of these Acts will also be notified shortly. In fact, as mentioned in our previous article, the Union Law Minister Shri D.V. Sadananda Gowda had recently stated that about 10% to 20% of the vacant positions of High Court judges would be filled in by mid-January 2015 through selections to be made by the National Judicial Appointments Commission. Copies of the aforesaid two Acts are reproduced at the end of this article.
The National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) consists of the Chief Justice of India who is its ex-officio chairman, two other senior most judges of the Supreme Court, the Union Law Minister and two eminent persons. Thus, there would be six members in all, including the Chief Justice of India. The two eminent persons will be appointed by a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha.
Thus, the two-decade old system of appointing High Court and Supreme Court judges through the collegium system will now give way to the National Judicial Appointments Commission, which does away with the near-monopoly of the judiciary in the appointments made to higher judiciary in India. Only time will tell as to how effective and better the new system will be.
Here is a copy of the Constitution (99th Amendment) Act, 2014, that establishes National Judicial Appointments Commission:
Constitution 99th Amendment Act 2014 by Tilak Marg
Here is a copy of the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014, that sets up the mechanism of the NJAC:
National Judicial Appointmens Commission Act 2014 by Tilak Marg
