Supreme Court acting as unelected ‘super Parliament’, Article 142 has become nuclear missile: VP Jagdeep Dhankhar questions judicial overreach and attempts to control the legislative
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar harshly criticised the recent Supreme Court verdict regarding the powers of the Governor and the President under Articles 200 and 201 of the Constitution. In the Judgment passed on 8th April, a division bench of the Supreme Court set a time limit, not envisaged in the Constitution, on the exercise of power to grant or refuse assent to a state Bill by the President and the Governor. The Supreme Court prescribed a deadline of 3 months on the President’s power to grant or refuse assent to a Bill reserved by the Governor for his consideration.
Without mincing words, VP Dhankhar questioned the Supreme Court for issuing a direction to the President of India. He reminded the Supreme Court that its power is limited to interpreting the Constitution. “We cannot have a situation where you direct the President of India, and on what basis? The only right you have under the Constitution is to interpret the Constitution under Article 145(3), ” said the Vice President in an address during the Valedictory Function of the 6th Rajya Sabha Internship Program at Vice-President’s Enclave on Thursday (17th April).
“The President is called upon to decide in a time-bound manner, and if not, it becomes law. So we have judges who will legislate, who will perform executive functions, who will act as super-parliament, and absolutely have no accountability because the law of the land does not apply to them,” he said.
Highlighting the fact that the judgment, which had the effect of modifying the concerned provisions, was delivered by a bench of two judges which did not represent the majority of the total number of judges in the Supreme Court. “When Article 145(3) was there, the number of judges in the Supreme Court was eight, 5 out of 8, now 5 out of 30 and odd. But forget about it, the judges who issued a mandamus virtually to the President and presented a scenario that it will be the law of the land, have forgotten the power of the Constitution. How can that combination of judges deal with something under Article 145(3) if preserved, it was then for five out of eight. We need to make amends for that also now. Five out of eight would mean interpretation will be by majority. Well, five constitutes more than the majority in eight. But leave that aside. Article 142 has become a nuclear missile against Democratic forces, available to the judiciary 24 x 7,” Dhankhar added.
The vice president added that the President of India is a very elevated position, who takes an oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution. He said, “If you look at the Indian Constitution, the President is the first part of the Parliament. Second and third are Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.”
Talking about the Supreme Court judgment, the VP said, “Recent there was a directive to the President, by a recent judgement. Where are we heading? What is happening in the country? We have to be extremely sensitive. It is not a question of someone filing a review or not. We never bargained for this. President being called upon to decide in a time-bound manner, and if not, it becomes law. So we have judges who will legislate, who will perform executive functions, who will act as super Parliament, and absolutely have no accountability because law of the land does not apply to them.”
Dhankhar questioned the handling of the Justice Yashwant Varma case
Vice-President raised questions on how the Supreme Court handled the matter relating to the discovery of huge amounts of unaccounted cash at the house of Justice Yashwant Varma. “An event happened on the night of the 14th and 15th of March in New Delhi, at the residence of a judge. For seven days, no one knew about it. We have to ask questions to ourselves. Is the delay explainable? Condonable? Does it not raise certain fundamental questions? In any ordinary situation, and ordinary situations define the rule of law, things would have been different. It was only on 21st March, disclosed by a newspaper, that people of the country were shocked as never before, ” the Vice-President remarked.
“Thereafter, fortunately, in the public domain, we had input from an authoritative source, the Supreme Court of India. And the input indicated culpability. Input did not lead to doubt that something was amiss. Something requires to be investigated. Now the nation waits with bated breath. The nation is restive because one of our institutions, to which people have always looked up with the highest respect and deference, was put in the dock,” he added.
The Supreme Court judgment
In the verdict passed in The State of Tamil Nadu v The Governor of Tamil Nadu and Anr, the Apex Court examined the ambit of powers of the President and the Governor conferred under Articles 200 and 201 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court held that the President should decide on the Bills sent to him by the Governor for consideration within 3 months, and that any delay beyond the prescribed time limit should be justified by recording reasons. Besides, the Court ruled that if the President fails to decide on a Bill within 3 months, then the State government can seek the issuance of the writ of mandamus from the Supreme Court against the President. The judgment is being widely criticised for alleged judicial overreach or a judicial attempt to effectively amend the constitution.
News