UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM & ENERGY STUDIES

COLLEGE OF LEGAL STUDIES

B.B.A., LL.B. (HONS.)

SEMESTER 2ND

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2016-17 SESSION: JULY-DEC,

SYNOPSIS
ON

99TH AMENDMENT
FOR
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-1

NAME: ANTARIKSH VERMA

SAP NO: 500046008
ROLL NO: 82
 ABSTRACT
The Constitution of India provided for the appointment of judges and independence of judiciary.
In India, the doctrine of Separation of Power given by Montesquieu with the principles of
Checks and Balances is applicable which means that the three organs of government i.e.
legislature, executive and judiciary will not have to interfere in the working of the others. But
there always remain tussle between the executive and the judiciary. Judicial Accountability and
Judicial Independence both have to work hand in hand to ensure the real purpose of setting up of
the institution of Judiciary. The same view was given by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in the constituent
assembly debate and the framers of the Constitution also opined that for the smooth working of
the judiciary, there must be independence as well as certain restrictions that are to be imposed
upon judiciary. But it is not easy to maintain the independence of judiciary as there is
interference by the other organ of the government to show its superiority. The detailed discussion
is in the paper

The National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was established by the Union
government of India by amending the constitution of India through the 99th Constitutional
Amendment Act, 2014. The amendment act was passed by both the houses of Parliament with
two-thirds of majority in August, 2014. Along with the amendment act, the NJAC Bill 2014 was
also passed by the Parliament. The bills were approved by the 20 state legislatures and President
of India gave his assent to the bills in December, 2014. The two acts came into force from 13th
April 2015. The NJAC act was challenged in Supreme Court by Supreme Court Advocates on
Record Association (SCAORA) and others contending that the new law is unconstitutional and it
is aimed at hurting the independence of judiciary. After accepting the petition, on October 16, the
five-member constitutional bench of Supreme Court headed by the Justice J.S. Kheharwith 4:1
majority has declared the National Judicial Appointments Commission and the 99th
Constitutional Amendment act as unconstitutional and void.

Statement Of Problem.
The 99th amendment was brought up to establish the NJAC(National Judicial Appointments
Commission) which in turn prescribed the rules and regulation for the appointment of judges in
both High Courts and Supreme Court. But the amendment could not be held for long and lost it's
value after Supreme Court discards it. Outside these black-and-white arguments, the more
complex reality is that it is the most difficult tasks the Supreme Court has faced in recent years.
While the legal fraternity continues to be sharply divided over the matter of how to select the
nations senior judges, the SCs eventual decision will be a landmark, whatever it is. The National
Judicial Appointments Commission was set up by the Central government to appoint judges.

The petitions had challenged the constitutional validity of the NJAC Act which had brought to an
end the two-decade-old collegium system of judges appointing judges in the higher judiciary.

The court today said that it will hold further hearings on improving the present collegium system
of appointing judges.

Survey of Existing Literature.

The research work has been done after reading and analyzing various government reports and
numerous research articles on 99th amendment. The data derived from the research papers and
journals was more beneficial and accurate as compared to the data in book. The writ petitions
filed in this regard proved even more helpful.

Identification of Issues.
Purpose of introduction of the bill.

What is NJAC and why was it constituted.

Changes that were ought to be made from this amendment.

Reason for it's failure.

Objectives and Scope of Research

Study and analyse the 99th amendment.
 To research on NJAC and it's main contents. ie composition, function
etc.

Study of related Case laws

Loopholes in the amendment

The scope of research into 99th amendment has extended from the study
of cases and judgements into reasons and causes of judgements and
treatments of these cases.

Research Methodology Adopted.

This paper uses Doctrinal Method of research.It indicates arranging,
ordering and analysis of the legal structure, legal frame work and case
laws to search out the new thing by extensive surveying of legal literature
but without any field work.

Probable Outcome
The outcome of this research could be revealing of the structure of 99th
amendment. Study of cases would give insight into the tortuous elements
present in the 99th Amendment. Also the loopholes of the Act would be
presented in a clear manner with the case laws closely related to the
foresaid amendment

Chapterisation
1. Introduction.

2. 99th Amendment basic structure

3. Formation and regulation of NJAC

4. Reasons for it's failure.

5. Case study.

6. Conclusion.

7. Bibliography.