New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday referred to a larger bench a batch of petitions challenging constitutional validity of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act meant to replace over a two decade-old collegium system of judges appointing judges.

A three-judge bench of justices A R Dave, J Chelameswar and Madan B Lokur, which had reserved its verdict on maintainability of these pleas, said "we refer these petitions to a larger bench".