Judicial independence under scrutiny in recent years: Shashi Tharoor in Lok Sabha

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 7

The Congress on Tuesday said judicial independence had come under scrutiny in recent years and demanded a broad law to strengthen service conditions of judges and ensure meaningful separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive.

Opening the debate on The High Courts and Supreme Courts (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill 2021 that clarifies matters pertaining to judicial pensions, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor flagged “government’s increasing influence over judicial appointments and the executive’s overarching, sometimes invisible and indirect control over the judiciary.”

He along with several other MPs demanded that retirement age of Supreme Court judges be raised from 65 to 67 years and that of high court judges be raised from 62 to 65 years to manage pendency of cases, currently a whopping 4.4 crore (3.77 crore in subordinate courts; 57 lakh in high courts and 73000 in the SC).

Tharoor took the occasion to cite instances of delay in the hearing of petitions challenging the Abrogation of Article 370, Citizenship Amendment Act, illegality of CBI among others to claim, “By its continued inaction, the court has not just allowed government sins against citizens to unpunished, it has also led some critics to ask whether the Supreme Court should also be considered an accomplice in the violation of rights granted by the Constitution.”

A day after the 29th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition (on December 6, 1992), Tharoor said, “It is fitting to recall how an act of vandalism was legitimized by the court. There has been a clear failure on the part of the judiciary to stem the tide of militant majoritarianism.”

He questioned the award of clean chit to the government in the Rafale jet matter and said “the clean chit awas given on the basis of famous sealed covers containing evidence exchanged between the CJI and government alone.”

The Congress MP mentioned the non hearing by the court of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and said, “There is an ipso facto concern of executive influence which has seemingly constrained the judiciary.  The court was seen as a constitutional instrument to define the limits of executive control over the erstwhile state of JK. Can Article 356 be used to suspend an assembly in a state and alter the nature of the state itself? Can a state be downgraded to a UT? These are constitutional questions. By repeatedly delaying the hearing on petitions, the SC failed to fulfill its role as protector of the Constitution while the rights of the people of J&K remained restricted.”

The Congress MP also questioned the pendency of habeas corpus petitions before the J&K High Court to say, "Rules mandate the disposal of habeas corpus petitions in 15 days but the HC took an average of 252.5 days. This is a blasphemous number of days when compared to the urgency required in such matters. We have also seen laxity by the judiciary in hearing cases challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act."

Interrupted by members of the treasury benches occasionally, Tharoor said the government should consider a larger law to raise the retirement age of judges, reduce pendency, eliminate post retirement benefits for judges and preserve judicial independence.

"To truly build a new India, we will have to separate the powers of the legislature, judiciary and the executive to ensure that the first two do not become a rubber stamp for the third,” Tharoor said earlier questioning the transfers of two judges who had ruled unfavorably from the point of view of the government in the Ishrat Jahan and Sohrabuddin cases.

The debate on the Bill also witnessed BJD’s Pinaki Mishra seek reintroduction of the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, with Law Minister Kiren Rijiju expected to reply to the debate on Wednesday.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.