Socio-political leader Suparno Satpathy on Monday extended his support to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for his statement ‘Indian democracy can’t be tyranny of the unelected’ in reaction to the strike down of the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) Act by the Supreme Court.
“On many occasions I have strongly differed with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. However, I am with him on this, when he says that the ‘Indian democracy can’t be tyranny of the unelected’,” said Satpathy.
Stating that a democracy lies with its executive, legislature and judiciary, Satpathy said, “I strongly feel that the independence of the Judiciary must be kept at top priority. However, any one with the slightest of knowledge about the subject will agree with me that the Collegium system of appointing judges is erroneous and has not worked well ever since it was put to work some 22 years back. To restore the credence deficit, it would have been ideal if the five judge bench had marked their reservations about the NJAC Act and sent it back for amendment/ improvisation rather than completely striking it down.”
He further said, “We must never forget that the NJAC Act was passed as a law with the collective decision of the lawmakers of the country.”
Having difference of opinion or to dissent with logic is healthy but any sort of ego driven war between the three constitutional pillars of democracy is extremely
alarming for the safe future
of a democracy, opined Satpathy.