NullPointerException for instance of Console

Question

When I execute this code...

import java.io.Console;
import java.lang.String;
public class Beginning 
{   
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        Console pass =  System.console();
        String username = pass.readLine("Enter username here -> "); //line 1
        char password[] = pass.readPassword("Enter password here -> ");
        System.out.println(username);
    }
}

... I get the following error - Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException at the line 1 marked in the code. How can I correct this? I have read few other NullPointerException answers but still can't seem to solve my problem. (I'm a beginner, btw)