New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea seeking the recall of an October 2015 constitution bench judgement striking down the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) that was brought to replace the collegium system for the appointment of judges to higher judiciary.
The bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B.Lokur, Justice Kurian Joseph, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice Ashok Bhushan dismissed the plea by the National Lawyers' Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms, both on the grounds of delay and merits.
"There is a delay of 470 days in filing the present Review Petition, for which no satisfactory explanation has been offered. The Review Petition is liable to be dismissed on the ground of delay alone. Even otherwise, we have carefully gone through the Review Petition and the connected papers. We do not find any merit in the same. The review Petition is dismissed on the ground of delay as well as on merits," said the order.
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In a separate order, the court dismissed the plea for the open court hearing of the review petition and engaging a counsel for the same.
"Applications seeking hearing of review petition in the open Court and for permission to engage an arguing counsel stand dismissed", order said.
Since the pronouncement of October 16, 2015 judgment striking down the NJAC, Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice Jasti Chelameswar, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel have retired.
Justice Khehar went on to become the chief justice of India. He retired on August 28, 2017.
