Centre defends NJAC, calls collegium system illegal
Nearly 14.35 lakh students are appearing at 80,000 centres across Bihar in the Class 10 examination conducted by the Bihar School Examination
Board. The exams began on March 17. In Bhind district, exam centres are usually crowded with family and friends. Some even write answers for the examinees while being guarded by armed men. Books and ‘chits’ fly in and out of the windows of the building. District education officer Deepak Kumar Pandey spoke of incidents of violence at the centres. Bhind has become infamous for ‘exam tourism’ because of the widespread cheating, he added. SHAHROZ AFRIDI NEW DELHI: The Centre Wednesday defended the controversial National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) before the Supreme Court and called the present collegium system to appoint judges illegal.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi urged the top court to give the new system an opportunity even as he avoided giving any assurance as to when the Commission would come into force. Rohatgi sought dismissal of a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Commission on the ground that it was yet to be notified. He said a five-judge bench should decide the substantial question raised in the petition The NJAC comprises the Chief Justice of India, two senior most judges, Union law minister and two eminent persons to be appointed by a panel comprising the CJI, the PM and Leader of the Opposition/or leader of the single largest opposition party. The Commission cannot function without the two eminent persons who are yet to be appointed