The Advocates-on-Record Association of the Supreme Court on Monday filed a petition challenging the constitutional status granted to the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).
It sought a declaration from the apex court against the NJAC as “invalid, void and unconstitutional”. The NJAC which recently got Presidential assent after ratification by 16 states replaced the two-decade-old collegium system of appointment of judges to the high courts and Supreme Court.
According to the petition, the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill has “altered the basic structure of the Constitution” and infringed upon judicial independence.
It said the Constitutional amendment took away the primacy of the collective opinion of the CJI and the two senior-most judges of the SC.