Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar on Thursday described Sonia Gandhi’s statement that a constitutional authority has been enlisted to “delegitimise the judiciary” as “severely inappropriate, indicating lack of faith in democracy”.
The comment prompted Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh to point out to The Telegraph: “The Chairman protests too much. A fact was stated in a party forum. Why is he all agog?”
Addressing Sonia as UPA chairperson, Dhankar said: “The observations are severely inappropriate, indicating lack of faith in democracy, making this exceptional response unavoidable.”
He went on to quote from his maiden speech as Rajya Sabha Chairman in which he had commented on the judiciary and said: “The statement imparted by the Hon’ble chairperson of the UPA is far distanced from my reflections.”
Dhankhar added: “Delegitimising the judiciary is beyond my contemplation. It is a pillar of democracy. I would urge and expect leaders across the political spectrum to bear in mind not to subject high constitutional offices to partisan stances.”
The debate over appointments to the higher judiciary and the National Judicial Appointments Commission has been rekindled in recent months with law minister Kiren Rijiju taking the lead in commenting on the lack of say for the government in judicial appointments.
Responding to an unstarred question from CPM MP John Brittas on Thursday, Rijiju said: “Representations from diverse sources on lack of transparency, objectivity and social diversity in the collegium system of appointment of judges to the constitutional courts are received from time to time with the request to improve this system of appointment of judges. The government has sent suggestions for supplementing the memorandum of procedure for appointment of judges to the high courts and the Supreme Court.”