A day after Justice Anil R. Dave >recused from the Constitution Bench set up to hear the validity of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), the Supreme Court, on Thursday, acted swiftly and re-constituted the Bench with Justice J.S. Khehar as the lead judge.
The new Bench would start hearing the petitions challenging the NJAC law from April 21.
The hearing on the NJAC was abruptly stopped at the very outset on Wednesday with senior advocate Fali Nariman, representing one of the petitioners, objecting to Justice Dave on the Bench. Mr. Nariman said the judge's presence would be in conflict of interest.
Mr. Nariman, counsel for the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association, submitted that the NJAC statute, notified on April 13, required the Chief Justice of India and two senior-most judges of the Supreme Court to be members of the six-member Commission.
Justice Dave was the second senior-most judge after Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and a member of the Commission in that capacity.
"He [Justice Dave] is a member of the Commission, the constitutionality of which is under challenge before this bench. So there is a clear conflict of interest," Mr. Nariman had addressed Justice Dave's Bench.
Justice Dave chose to recuse despite Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi opposing Mr. Nariman, saying that a contention like this coming from an advocates' association Association is “condemnable”.
As per seniority, Justice J.S. Khehar is in the line of succession as CJI following Justice T.S. Thakur, who is likely to take over after the present Chief Justice retires in December 2015.
Justice Khehar is presently the third senior-most judge, following Justices Thakur and Dave, in the Supreme Court after the CJI. He was part of the Supreme Court Collegium, which has been replaced by the NJAC law.
The other four judges who were on the earlier Bench - Justices J. Chelameswar, Madan B. Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A.K. Goel - would continue.
