Supreme court asks whether judges alone are competent at picking judges

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked petitioners challenging the constitutional validity of the National Judicial Appointments Commission ( NJAC) whether the Centre's stand that two eminent persons in the judge selection body be chosen from fields other than law was so faulty as to merit outright rejection.
Arguing for an advocates' body from Chennai, senior advocate Arvind Datar argued that eminent persons from non-legal field as members in the NJAC would not be able to make a fair assessment of the qualities and capabilities of a lawyer or a judge considered for appointment to the SC and HCs.

“What will an eminent agricultural scientist know about lawyers who are being considered for appointment as judges of the SC or HC? To screen candidates, the selection committee members must be aware about their past record, in tegrity and the quality of judgments," he said.

The bench which has been hearing arguments on the validity of the NJAC for more than two months almost on a day to day basis, termed Datar's arguments to be of a “very broad sweep."

Justice Chelameswar said, “It will be fallacious to argue that no one other than judges and lawyers would be competent to select judges.It sounds too broad an argument. In the past, executive had selected judges. And for two decades, the judges selected judges. On both counts, bad elements got selected. No doubt mistakes were made in selecting judges in both systems."

The arguments will continue on Friday .