Supreme Court: A major breakthrough was achieved after the Court declared the 99th Amendment to the Constitution and the subsequent National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014 to be void and unconstitutional in the SCORA v. Union of India, 2015 SCC OnLine SC 964, the bench comprising of Jagdish Singh Khehar, J., Chelameswar, J., Madan B. Lokur, J., Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Kumar Goel, JJ.in furtherance of the decision, ordered the Government of India to finalize the existing Memorandum of Procedure by supplementing it in consultation with the Chief Justice of India. The Chief Justice of India will take a decision based on the unanimous view of the collegium comprising the four senior most puisne Judges of the Supreme Court.
In view of affording an opportunity to the stakeholders to furnish their valuable contributions on the matter a two member committee was constituted, on the nomination by the learned Attorney General, comprising of Mrs. Pinki Anand, Additional Solicitor General, and Mr. Arvind P. Datar, Senior Advocate. In tune with such suggestions, it was directed that the Chief Justice of India and the Government of India while finalizing the Memorandum of Procedure shall take into consideration the following categories- Eligibility criteria, Transparency in the appointment process, Secretariat, Complaints and Miscellaneous.
Finally stating that the guidelines mentioned are only broad suggestions for consideration and supplementing the Memorandum of Procedure for the faithful implementation of the principles laid down in the Second Judges case and the Third Judges case, the matter was disposed off. [SCORA v. Union of India, 2015 SCC OnLine SC 1322, decided on 16.12.2015]