The Central government on Tuesday said to the Supreme Court that it must acknowledge the unprecedented unanimity in Parliament to amend the Constitution to replace the opaque collegiums system, by which judges appoint judges, with a transparent multi-member National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). Brushing aside apprehensions about NJAC being a threat to 'independence of judiciary', attorney general Mukul Rohatgi told a bench of Justices A R Dave, J Chelameswar and Madan B Lokur that it was Parliament's unanimous view to replace the collegium system.

"Lok Sabha passed the bill by 367 to zero vote and Rajya Sabha by 179 votes to none against it. Apart from this, now 20 states have ratified it. There is an overwhelming mandate from the people for a change in the system of judges appointing judges, which was brought into force by the Supreme Court through a judgment. The scheme prepared by the apex court through the judgments in the 1990s did not conform to the provisions of the Constitution," the AG said.

"Moreover, one cannot say with certainty that the constitutional scheme for appointment of judges, which was in practice from 1950 till the late 1990s, produced any worse judges than those appointed through the collegium system. The system is evolving. Let the new system be given a chance. The moment the law is notified, it will bring the collegium system to an end," the AG said.

By Premji