Legal scholar Professor Upendra Baxi Tuesday said the recent SC verdict on the NJAC did not take away the “plenary powers of Parliament to bring forth a national collegium.” He was speaking at a panel discussion on the “Constitutional Quagmire of Judicial Appointments”
“The judgment says you cannot violate the basic structure of the Constitution. The judgment allows Parliament to create another judicial appointments commission,” said Baxi. He suggested a “30-50 member collegium” with the chief justices of all HCs, civil society members, and five senior-most SC judges.
Advocate Madhavi Diwan, who represented the government in the NJAC case, said a “transparent” appointments system was necessary to “bring confidence” that the system would “provide efficient justice delivery.” The discussion was conducted by NLU Delhi’s Public Law and Policy Discussion Group with Caravan Conversations.
