Attacking the Congress party for its use of judiciary when the party was in power, PM Narendra Modi on Thursday said that to browbeat and bully others is vintage Congress culture. He was referring to an open letter written by over 600 prominent lawyers expressing concern over attempts by a group to undermine the judiciary’s integrity.
Reposting a tweet talking about the letter, PM Modi said, “5 decades ago itself they had called for a “committed judiciary” – they shamelessly want commitment from others for their selfish interests but desist from any commitment towards the nation.” He added, “No wonder 140 crore Indians are rejecting them.”
Notably, the term “committed judiciary” is from the Indira Gandhi era, when the judiciary was expected to be “committed” to the Indira Gandhi govt during the emergency. The term was used by late Mohan Kumaramangalam, who was a minister in the Indira Gandhi government. He had said that the govt will appoint chief justices based on the govt’s assessment of their philosophy and outlook, telling the parliament in 1973, “Certainly, we as a government have a duty to take (into consideration) the philosophy and outlook of the judge in coming to the conclusion whether he should or should not lead the Supreme Court at this time.”
This idea was implemented by the Govt when three senior-most judges were superseded to make Justice A N Ray the chief justice of India. After Ray retired in 1977, the govt again superseded seniormost candidate Justice Hans Raj Khanna to appoint Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg.
Earlier in the day, 600 prominent lawyers, including Harish Salve, Manan Kumar Mishra, Adish Agarwala, Chetan Mittal, Pinky Anand, Hitesh Jain, Ujjwala Pawar, Uday Holla, Swaroopama Chaturvedi and others wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India, expressing their deepest concerns over the vested interest group attempting to put pressure on the Judiciary, influence the judiciary process and defame the courts based on stale political agendas and frivolous logic.
The letter further pointed out that the false narrative of a supposed “better past” and “golden period of the courts” is being created to show a “contrast” of what has been happening in the present. The letter read, “Their antics are vitiating the atmosphere of trust and harmony, which characterises the functioning of the Judiciary. Their pressure tactics are most obvious in political cases, particularly those involving political figures accused of corruption. These tactics are damaging to our courts and threaten our democratic fabric.”
The letter further added that intentional statements had been made to influence the court’s decisions and embarrass the court for political gains, and highlighted the theory of “bench fixing” created, raising concerns that it led to slanderous attacks and insinuations against the judges.
The lawyers called for a closer scrutiny of this group’s actions. They suggested that the vested interest group act strategically and choose the timing when the nation is all set to poll for Lok Sabha elections. They further added that similar attempts were made during 2019 General Elections.