NEW DELHI: Vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar Thursday took exception to Supreme Court’s ruling setting a timeline for the President and governors to decide on bills, saying, “We cannot have a situation where you direct the President of India and on what basis?”
A ddressing the 6th batch of Rajya Sabha interns at VP Enclave Thursday, Dhankhar said, “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 democracy for this.”
Referring to the apex court invoking Article 142 of the Constitution, which grants Supreme Court broad powers to ensure “complete justice” in any case before it, Dhankhar said Thursday this “has become a nuclear missile against democratic forces, available to the judiciary 24×7”. The court had invoked the article while pronouncing its judgement against Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi. Referring to the SC judgment of Apr 8, the VP said, “The only right you have under the Constitution is to interpret the Constitution under Article 145(3). There, it has to be five judges or more…”
The court had ruled that governor Ravi’s decision to withhold assent to 10 bills was “illegal” and “arbitrary” and set a three-month deadline for Presidential and gubernatorial assent to the Bills passed by the legislature for the second time. “…President being called upon to decide in a timebound manner, and if not, (the legislation sent to him) 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 said.
The vice president also raised questions on the immunity of judges with reference to former Delhi HC Justice Verma’s case, observing that no “investigation under law is in progress at the moment” as no FIR has been lodged.
Referring to this case, Dhankhar said the country came to know about the burnt cash through a newspaper report seven days after the fire at judge’s residence.
