NJAC was unworkable; rework the law instead of attacking Supreme Court for striking it down: Arvind Datar

The National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) conceived by the Central government in 2015 for appointing judges to the High Courts and the Supreme Court was absolutely unworkable, Senior Advocate Arvind Datar said on Saturday. .Hence, he opined that the government should not be attacking and criticising the Supreme Court for striking down NJAC; instead it should rework the law."Now, I forgot to mention the NJAC, but if you see the NJAC Act.. it is an absolutely unworkable principle. If the amendment was struck down.. the answer is not to attack the Supreme Court," said Datar. The Senior Counsel was delivering the Nineteenth Justice PD Desai Memorial Lecture on the subject Fifty Years of Basic Structure - Judicial Overreach or Constitutional Necessity.It was in October 2015 that the Supreme Court struck down the NJAC and the constitutional amendments involved, on the ground that they violate independence of judiciary which is part of the basic structure of the Constitution. .Datar in his speech also defended the basic structure doctrine, stating that it has never prevented any developmental efforts of the government. In fact, it was simply aimed at protecting the Constitution, he underline. "Is it coming in the way? I ask a simple question.. tell me, which proposal that an elected government wants to do is interdicted or is thwarted or the basic structure is a stumbling block in what you want to do for social development.".He also opined that the Supreme Court has never come in the way of social reform or stopped the intention of parliament to implement reservations or social policies.To buttress this, he gave an instance of he 103rd amendment relating to reservations in favour of Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)."I'm still completely puzzled by critics who want to say they want to revisit basic structure.. which part? Are you going to say equality is not basic structure, right to speech is not basic structure, judicial review is not basic structure.. what are you trying to say?".Datar ended his lecture by stating that the most important pillar of rule of law is a written Constitution, and the most important pillar of a written constitution is its basic structure..Read more about what Datar said on basic structure here..[Follow our coverage of the lecture here]