A few days after Parliament passed the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Bill, which seeks, among other things, to do away with the Collegium system for appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the High Courts, a city advocate has moved the Madras High Court to declare the law illegal and unconstitutional.
E. Vijay Anand said that to constitute the NJAC, Article 124 of the Constitution should be amended. But the Bill to amend the provision itself was under process. Hence, Parliament had no power to pass the NJAC Bill. There was no provision as ‘124 A’ in the Constitution when the NJAC Bill was passed. Hence, the Bill lacked authority.
The NJAC Bill was based on an unborn law, and the amendment Bill was meant to pass it, the petitioner said.
The First Bench, of Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, directed the Registry to number the petition and list it for admission on August 26.
