In what may be a historic moment in Indian judiciary, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court may pronounce its judgment on the validity of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) laws on October 16.
The judgment will decide the fate of the powerful Supreme Court collegium and its so-far undisputed authority to appoint judges to the higher judiciary as it did for the past two decades.
After exactly two months since the five-judge Bench completed marathon hearings, October 16 may offer the watershed moment if it upholds the constitutionality of the NDA government’s NJAC laws which gives politicians and civil society a major say in judicial appointments.
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Upholding the new law may spell the end of opacity in collegium appointments of judges.