Case: National Lawyers' Campaign for Judicial Transparency &amp; Reforms &amp; Others Vs. Hon'ble Shri Justice J.S. Khehar &amp; Others

By means of the present Writ Petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India by the National Lawyers Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms and fifteen other persons out of which eight petitioners are advocates, even though they have claimed as many as nine reliefs but basically they can be categorized in two main reliefs asthe appointment of Honble Mr. Justice J.S. Khehar, Chief Justice ofas the next Chief Justice of India be quashed as the Honble Judge being disqualified for reason of conflict of interest by virtue of lead judgment dated 16.10.2015 authored by His Lordship in the National Judicial Appointment Commission case;(ii) the judgment rendered in the National Judicial Appointment Commission case, popularly known as NJAC case is void ab initio on various grounds;

Reasoning: 12. However, the eligibility of Honble Mr. Justice J.S. Khehar is being questioned only on the ground that the judgment in National Judicial Appointment Commission case was delivered by His Lordship wherein he has held that the Constitutional) Act, 2014 and the National Judicial Appointment Commission Act, 2014 are, therefore, the Honble Judge usurped to himself the power of appointment of the Judges.It may be mentioned here that the judgment in National Judicial Appointment Commission case was delivered individually by all the Honble Judges constituting the Constitution Bench and the case was decided by a majority of four Honble Judges and not by His Lordship alone.13. So far as the allegation that he has usurped the power of appointment of Judges to himself is concerned, it is sufficient to mention here that the Collegium not only consists of the Chief Justice of India but four other Honble Senior Judges as well and it cannot be said that the Chief Justice of India can usurp the power of appointing the Judges for himself.14. The petitioners have themselves admitted the qualities of Honble Mr. Justice J.S. Khehar in paragraph 6, 20 and Ground No. C referred to above, and there is no question of his being considered as ineligible or disqualified for being appointed as the Chief Justice of India.15. So far as the correctness of the decision in the National Judicial Appointment Commission case is concerned, in our opinion, under the Supreme Court Rules, the petitioners have the remedy for filing a review of the judgment as also to file a curative petition. It is open for them to take appropriate proceedings in accordance with law if they wish to question the judgment rendered in National Judicial Appointment Commission case.