The Centre today told the Supreme Court that two eminent persons in the six-member National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) for appointing judges for higher judiciary need not have legal background.
"The qualification for an eminent person under the law is not that he should have a legal background and the same position is prevailing in the United Kingdom," Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told a five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by Justice J S Khehar, which is examining the constitutional validity of NJAC Act, 2014.
The clarification from the Attorney General came as senior advocate Ram Jethmalani and others, who have argued against replacing the two-decade old collegium system of appointment of judges by judges, contended that the new law was "vague" on the issue of eminent persons.
"We have tried to come out with the broad-base system on appointment of judges and why should there be no new system? Why can't we try a new system? We have made changes earlier also. The presence of eminent person will act as checks and balances," Rohatgi submitted.
A detail submission by the Attorney General to defend the new law will be advanced later as now the bench, also comprising Justices J Chelameswar, M B Lokur, Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Kumar Goel, has given chance to argue to all those who have opposed the new law.
Jethmalani, who continued his arguments, said the statute is vague on the issue of eminent persons in the panel as "there are millions of people who will feel that they are eminent."
He said for a person to be considered as eminent to be in NJAC must have the intimate knowledge of major qualification of a person as a judge of a High Court and the Supreme Court and "the only person who fulfills this qualification is the leader of the Bar and not the Law Minister".
Asked by the bench as to who could be the leader of the Bar, he said "the leader of the Bar is an acknowledged person without any dissent.
