Collegium system to continue until NJAC is in place

The two-decade old Supreme Court Collegium system for appointing judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts will continue until the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) is put in place, Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda said on Friday.

Mr. Gowda was clearing the air in the wake of media reports that there was a tug-of-war between the government and the highest judiciary, and appointments to the top courts of the country “will be put on hold” until the petitions pending in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the NJAC Act, 2014 are decided.

“This is common sense. I have not said that judicial appointments are put on hold,” Mr. Gowda told

The Hindu on Friday over the phone.

He hoped the Chief Justice of India, who is the chairman of the NJAC, would extend his cooperation. Even the nomination of two eminent persons to the Commission had to be decided by a high-level panel led by the Prime Minister and including the Chief Justice of India. “Without the CJI’s cooperation how can we do this?”

Meanwhile, a bunch of petitions seeking to declare the Constitution 99th Amendment Act, 2014, providing Constitutional status to the NJAC, as “invalid, void and unconstitutional,” was yet to be listed in the apex court. The NJAC restores the political class’s role in the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the High Courts. Both the Constitution Amendment Bill and the NJAC Bill were passed by Parliament in August 2014.