CJI Surya Kant indicates Supreme Court will consider NJAC revival petition.
Petition claims 2015 judgment striking down NJAC violated the will of the people.
Collegium system criticised as opaque and favouritism-prone in petition.
Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Wednesday (November 26, 2025) indicated that the Supreme Court would examine a petition seeking to revive the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) and replace the Collegium system for appointments to the country’s constitutional courts. According to The Hindu, the oral mentioning of the plea coincided with the 76th Constitution Day.
The petition, filed by advocate Mathews J. Nedumpara, names the Chief Justice of India, the Supreme Court Collegium, the Union Government, and several political parties as respondents. It contends that the apex court’s 2015 decision striking down the NJAC was “a great wrong because it meant substitution of the will of the people by the opinion of the four judges,” The Hindu reported.
The NJAC, briefly in effect before being struck down, had provided the government an equal role alongside the judiciary in selecting judges for constitutional courts. The petition seeks to render the 2015 judgment void ab initio, arguing that the revival of the Collegium system has perpetuated a framework that is “a synonym for nepotism and favouritism.”
“Since the Collegium came into existence, appointments to higher judiciary have been a ‘riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma’ to borrow an expression from Winston Churchill. There has been no transparency whatsoever, at all. Even within the judiciary there has been lamentation. The Parliament which represents the will of the people, in exercise of its constituent power, had enacted 99th Constitutional Amendment Act and the NJAC Act. However, the enactments were ‘quashed and set aside’ by this court, reducing the Parliament to an inferior tribunal,” the petition stated, according to The Hindu.
The Supreme Court has not yet set a date for hearing the petition, but CJI Surya Kant’s comments signal that the matter will be considered.
(With inputs from The Hindu)
