Govt trying to take away independence of judiciary, alleges Prashant Bhushan
Janhastakshep and PUCL
jointly organized a public meeting on 19th January 2018 at ‘Press Club’ on the
topic Felling of the Last Bastion: Is Indian Democracy in Peril with the
Judiciary Becoming a Victim of Political Interference. The meeting was
presided over by the Prof Ish Mishra of Delhi University, Speakers were Mr.
Prashant Bhushan, Hartosh Singh Bal (Editor: The Carvan), Ms. Poonam (Adv.) and
Mr. N D Pancholi (President PUCL).
While introducing the
topic Mr. Satentra Ranjan (Senior Journalist) said that the unprecedented media
conference by the four senior most Judges of the SC expressing their anguish
over what they perceive to be a process under way that threatens the last
independent bastion to protect Indian democracy – the judiciary. They
also highlighted that there are irregularities in constitution of benches and
assignment of cases by the Chief Justice and asked for remedial measures. They
have said, in their letter addressed to the CJI, unless this institution is
preserved and it maintains its equanimity, the democracy will not survive in
this country, or any country.
They revealed that not
only did their letter evoke no response, it was followed by even more arbitrary
assignment of cases and constitution of benches comprising judges who had no
domain knowledge or history of knowledge in the cases that had far-reaching
consequences for the people i.e. the Aadhar case that pertains to fundamental
questions about the powers of the State and the individual, the right to
privacy and public interest. According to media reports, the matter related to
allocation of a suitable bench for hearing the case about Judge Loya’s death
was the final reason for the four judges of the Supreme Court to make their
concerns public.
The other cases that
worried the four judges were the Sahara-Birla diaries and the case regarding
the allocation of a bench to hear a matter in which judges were allegedly
bribed by a medical college in UP to obtain a favourable order. Citing conflict
of interest the petitioner in the medical college case had asked CJI Dipak
Misra to recuse himself from the decision to assign a bench to hear the matter.
The request was not accepted… read more:
http://www.hastakshep.com/englishnews/felling-of-the-last-bastion-is-indian-democracy-in-peril-with-the-judiciary-16539also see
