Supreme Court admits anti – NJAC PILs; Justice Khehar to continue on the Bench [Updated]

After days of uncertainty and heightened drama, the Supreme Court today issued notice to the Central government and all the States in the batch of petitions challenging the Constitutional validity of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC)..The decision came today evening post 4 pm after a day-long hearing on the composition of the Bench and whether Justice JS Khehar should be part of the Bench hearing the case. Given the fact that Justice Khehar was a member of the last Collegium and will be a member of the NJAC in the near future, some of the petitioners had objected to him presiding over the Bench hearing the matter citing conflict of interest. The Bench, however, arrived at a consensus today that Justice Khehar will continue to hear the case. The hearing on the merits of the case will commence on April 27, i.e. Monday next week..The Court also decided that the petition filed by the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA) will be taken as the lead petition. It has, however, agreed to grant the other parties liberty to file additional pleadings. The Court also directed that a copy of the lead petition filed by SCAORA be uploaded on the website of the Supreme Court of India so as to enable Standing counsel of various States to download and access the same..Meanwhile, the Court will sit at 2 pm tomorrow to fix a time limit for arguing counsel to make submissions and hinted at completing the hearing in 10 to 15 days. The Central government will also inform the Court tomorrow about what steps could be taken with respect to Additional judges of High Courts whose tenures would be lapsing soon..Today, different Senior Advocates argued for and against Justice Khehar presiding the Bench. Senior Advocates Arvind Datar, Harish Salve, KK Venugopal and Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi submitted that Justice Khehar should continue on the Bench. Senior Advocate Fali Nariman, however, argued that Justice Khehar’s continuance on the Bench should be subject to him furnishing a declaration that he will not take part in the Collegium proceedings until this case is decided..Nariman had sought a similar declaration from Justice Anil R Dave with respect to NJAC meetings leading to Justice Dave’s recusal..Interestingly, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi informed the Court today that 98 per cent of the judicial appointments initiated by the erstwhile Collegium have been cleared by the government..Update April 23, 2015: Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi (AG) today informed the Court that the constitution of the NJAC will be completed before May 11 by selection and appointment of two “eminent persons”. He also stated that consequent upon the nomination of two “eminent persons”, the NJAC shall, during the pendency of the proceedings in the case, only deal with the appointment of existing Additional judges. The Court recorded the same in its order..Rohatgi also said that all the “pipeline appointments” initiated by the Collegium have been cleared except the ones which the government had put on hold even before the NJAC Act was notified. He further told the Court that in the event the NJAC proposes to make any fresh appointments, it will first inform the Court before doing the same so that an appropriate decision could be taken in that regard. The Court proceeded to accept the stand of the AG..The list of Standing counsel of States on whom notice has been served can be read here..Read the orders passed by the Court in the case below.