The Supreme Court today refused to intervene "at this stage" on the issue of constitutional validity of the amendment by which collegium system for appointment of judges in higher judiciary was scrapped and a new mechanism under National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) was proposed to be put in place.
Declining to entertain a batch of petitions challenging the 121st constitutional amendment and the NJAC bill, a three- judge bench headed by Justice A R Dave said the PILs are "premature" and allowed the petitioner to approach the court at a later stage.
"We are of the view that the petitions are premature. It's open for the petitioners to approach the court at later stage on the same ground," the bench also comprising justices J Chelameswar and A K Sikri said.
The bench, which had especially assembled to hear the petitions against the NJAC bill, gave a patient hearing for one-and-a-half hour but refused to interfere at this stage regarding the bill.
