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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Recuse call rerun stalls NJAC hearing

Recuse call rerun stalls NJAC hearing

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published Published on Apr 22, 2015   modified Modified on Apr 22, 2015
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: The Constitution bench hearing on the controversial National Judicial Appointments Commission today got entangled in "conflict of interest" issues for the second time in two weeks, with presiding judge J.S. Khehar being asked to recuse.

Justice Khehar is in line to take over as Chief Justice of India in January 2017 after Justice T.S. Thakur attains superannuation. Last week, Justice A.R. Dave had been forced to recuse on similar grounds.

Under the so-called doctrine of "conflict of interest", only 11 junior judges of the 28 sitting Supreme Court judges can hear the batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the NJAC Act passed by Parliament to replace the collegium system.

Barring the 11, the remaining judges - including Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu -would be members of the NJAC or of the collegium or in line for CJI in the future. The top court has a total sanctioned strength of 31 but its present strength is 28.

Justice Khehar is the fourth senior-most member of the Supreme Court. Although not a member of the NJAC, he is part of the five-judge collegium headed by the CJI.

Justice Dave, the third senior-most judge, is a member of the collegium and an ex-officio member of the NJAC. Jurist Fali Nariman, appearing for main petitioner Advocates-on-Record Association, had sought his recusal.

Today, as soon as a fresh bench headed by Justice Khehar - and comprising Justices J. Chelameshwar, Madan B. Lokur, Kurien Joseph and A. K. Goel - commenced hearing, Mumbai-based advocate J. Mathews sought recusal of Justice Khehar on the ground that he was member of the collegium.

The counsel has filed an intervention application supporting the NJAC and opposing the collegium system.

The demand then dominated proceedings which went on for an hour before Justice Khehar indicated that the bench would first determine, and if necessary lay down a law on, what amounts to conflict of interest for judges hearing the matter.

"This is unbelievable that someone or the other raises an objection. Maybe we can lay down the parameters so that in future the CJI follows them while constituting benches," Justice Khehar said, adjourning the matter till tomorrow.

Possibly anguished at the way top court judges were being subjected to personal attack in the name of conflict of interest, Justice Khehar said: "I have no desire to preside over the bench.

"Otherwise, I will be writing the judgments in vacation. I am here because the case was assigned to me by the CJI. I could otherwise even be spending time with my family."

Justice Khehar, being a member of the collegium that the NJAC seeks to replace, has the power to appoint and transfer judges of the Supreme Court and high courts.

Senior lawyers, including K.K. Venugopal and Harish Salve, requested Justice Khehar to ignore the plea for recusal but he refused to budge.

"The matter before us is very important. Whether this bench hears it or someone else, it needs to be decided quickly or else the appointments would get stalled," the bench said.

Justice Chelameswar, the second senior-most judge on the bench, asked the various counsel: "Is this apprehension valid especially in the case where each one of us would be giving (different) reasons to arrive at a conclusion?"

He was alluding to the fact that in case of a five-judge constitution bench, the view of one judge would not matter.

Fali Nariman, who had asked Justice Dave to recuse, supported Mathews's argument for Justice Khehar's recusal.

"No future CJI or member of the NJAC should hear the case. Conflict of interest will arise due to personal interest of the judges," the senior counsel said.

Justice Khehar said by that yardstick several judges would be disqualified from hearing the case as they were either members of the NJAC or the collegium or would be in the race for CJI.

"Under all circumstances, Justice Dave was the best man for it as he is a member of the collegium and will be a member of the NJAC," he said.

Nariman suggested an alternative - that a five-judge bench, comprising the CJI, two senior-most judges and two others, hear the NJAC case in view of the question of constitutional law involved.

However, appearing for the Union government, attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi opposed the plea for Justice Khehar's recusal.

He said in the last two decades "smaller benches of the court had on the judicial side overruled administrative decisions taken by the full court".

As such, the question of conflict of interest should be ignored, and the bench should proceed to hear the matter on merit, he said.

The Telegraph, 22 April, 2015, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150422/jsp/nation/story_15963.jsp#.VTcrUJNr9v0


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