Dhankhar’s remarks on judiciary a game plan to orchestrate confrontation: Cong

New Delhi, Jan 13: Upping the ante, the Congress on Friday alleged that Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s comments on the judiciary were part of a “game plan to orchestrate a confrontation”, and cited his predecessor M Venkaiah Naidu’s remarks in 2020 that the Constitution is supreme.
Vice President Dhankhar on Wednesday said “one-upmanship and public posturing” from judicial platforms is not good and these institutions must know how to conduct themselves. Dhankhar’s virtual censure of the judiciary had come following the apex court’s remarks on the issue of the collegium system.
Stepping up the party’s attack over the issue, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “Mr Chidambaram has pointedly countered the Vice President’s assault on the judiciary by saying the Constitution and not Parliament is supreme. Just a year ago, Mr Dhankar’s predecessor Venkaiah Naidu-garu had said exactly what Mr Chidambaram has.”
Ramesh tagged an official release of Naidu’s remarks at the inaugural session of the 80th All India Conference of Presiding Officers at Kevadia, Gujarat, in November 2020.
In his remarks, Naidu had said none of the three organs of the ‘State’ can claim to be supreme as only the Constitution is supreme and the legislature, the executive and the judiciary are bound to work within the respective domains as defined in the Constitution.
Asked about Dhankhar’s comments at a press conference later in the day, Ramesh said,” this is clearly an orchestration of a confrontation between the judiciary and the government. Different voices are being raised. It is one thing to have a committed judiciary but if the objective is to have a captured judiciary then I think democracy is under threat. So, this is part of a game plan to orchestrate a confrontation.”
Noting that this year would be the 50 anniversary of the Kesavananda Bharati verdict, he said if there is one judgement that every political party has upheld, it was this one.
“I have heard Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee speak in favour of the Kesavananda Bharati verdict, I have seen Mr (L K) Advani speak in its favour and of course I have heard Mr Arun Jaitley speak multiple times on how the Kesavnanda Bharati case is a milestone,” he said.
“On the soon-to-be 50th anniversary of the Kesavananda Bharati judgement…no less a man than the Vice president, one constitutional functionary is attacking another constitutional institution, it is an extraordinary situation,” Ramesh said.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday had said Rajya Sabha Chairman Dhankhar is wrong when he says that Parliament is supreme as it is the Constitution that is supreme.
Addressing the 83rd All India Presiding Officers Conference in Jaipur, Dhankar had again criticised the scrapping of the NJAC Act in 2015 and questioned the landmark 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case verdict, saying it set a wrong precedent. He also disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling that Parliament can amend the Constitution but not its basic structure.
Earlier, a number of legal experts had also denounced Dhankhar’s remarks questioning the landmark 1973 Kesavananda Bharati verdict.
Reacting to his remarks, Supreme Court Bar Association president and senior advocate Vikas Singh said there is no question of posturing as the Supreme Court decides a case on the basis of pleadings.
“I don’t really understand what he is saying. Is he saying that justice delivery should stop, or the judges should not pass judgements contrary to what the government wants it to do? As far as the judiciary is concerned there is no question of posturing as they decide a case on the basis of pleadings and judicial review is an integral part of our system,” he said.
Noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan said in a constitutional republic, the Parliament is not supreme and rather it is the Constitution which is.
He also advised the Rajya Sabha chairman to study the Constitution. “The present government is unhappy with the basic structure doctrine because it wants no impediment to the structural changes they want to make in our democracy and polity. It’s a government which has been destroying every democratic institution and wants to do away with secularism as well. For this reason, it wants to weaken the judiciary which it seems today as the only impediment to its quest for a fascist dictatorship. In a constitutional republic , Parliament is not supreme but the Constitution is. Mr Dhankhar should go back to study the Constitution,” Bhushan said. (PTI)