The Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday refused to grant an interim injunction restraining the Centre from notifying the Constitution (99{+t}{+h}Amendment) Act, 2014 which paves way for replacing the collegium system of appointing Supreme Court and High Court judges with the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).
Justices S. Tamilvanan and V.S. Ravi said that an interim order could be passed only when the balance of convenience was in favour of the petitioner and after it was proved that an irreparable loss would be caused if the court did not pass such an order. They asked Assistant Solicitor General (ASG) G.R. Swaminathan to obtain instructions and adjourned the hearing till Monday.
Earlier, arguing the case on his own, the petitioner, Y. Krishnan of Madurai, claimed that the proposed NJAC would give an upper hand to the executive in the matter of appointment of judges besides giving scope for political interference.
“Once the amendment is notified in the gazette, there will be great danger to the independence of judiciary and the Constitution itself would be destroyed,” he contended.
On the other hand, the ASG pointed out that the Supreme Court was already seized of the issue.
He further said that a reading of the petitioner’s affidavit shows that he had not made out any case. “There is no quarrel on the issue that the basic structure of the Constitution cannot be altered. But it has not been set out how the amendment compromises the independence of the judiciary,” he added.
Later, the judges directed the petitioner to include the State government as one of the respondents to the case since it had ratified the amendment and asked Additional Advocate General K. Chellapandian too to assist the court on the next date of hearing.
