VP: SC verdict during Emergency darkest in judicial history

Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday said the Supreme Court’s judgment suspending fundamental rights during the Emergency was the darkest in India’s judicial history.

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“Nine high courts in the country have gloriously defined that, emergency or no emergency, people have fundamental rights, and there is access to the justice system. Unfortunately, during the Emergency, the Supreme Court overturned all nine high courts and gave a judgment which will be the darkest in the history of any judicial institution in the world that believes in the rule of law. The decision was that it is the will of the Executive to have Emergency for as much time as it thinks fit,” the VP said.

When SC admitted 1976 verdict was erroneous

In 2011, a Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ashok Kumar Ganguly of the apex court admitted that the majority SC decision of a five-member Constitution Bench upholding the suspension of fundamental rights during Emergency in the ADM, Jabalpur, versus Shivkant Shukla (1976) case was erroneous and violated fundamental rights.

He was interacting with the participants of the seventh batch of the Rajya Sabha internship programme at Vice-President Enclave.

Dhankhar said SC judgment “legitimised dictatorship, authoritarianism and despotism in Bharat, the oldest and now most vibrant democracy”.

“You have to remember it because you were not there. I was there,” he added.

The VP termed the BJP-led NDA government’s decision to mark June 25 as Samvidhan Hatya Divas as wise and said the Emergency was a sombre reminder that citizens had to act as guardians of democratic values.

Recalling June 25, 1975, when at midnight President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed signed the order for the Emergency at the instance of then PM Indira Gandhi, the VP said, “A President cannot act on the advice of one individual, the Prime Minister. The Constitution is categorical that a council of ministers headed by the PM will aid and advise the President. This was one violation and over 1,00,000 citizens were put behind bars in hours.”

The VP went on to add that those arrested went on to become Prime Ministers — Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Morarji Desai and Chandra Shekhar. Many became Chief Ministers, Governors and scientists.

The VP said India was a country that believed in harmony, which meant practice of religion as per choice. He warned against forced conversions and said if there was allurement, it would amount to challenging civilisational assets and foundations.

“This change is taking place. Every individual has a right and a duty to attend to this,” he said.