The running feud between the Congress and the BJP over impeachment of Chief Justice of India and appointment of judges escalated on Thursday with the Opposition party alleging that the judiciary is in the danger and the BJP retorting that the Congress has no moral ground to talk about the matter.
Union law Minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad sought to tear into the Congress saying the party’s record of “giving unfair and unconstitutional treatment to judiciary is well known”.
“It is littered with repeated instances of superseding inconvenient judges and compromising independence of judiciary,” he said.
He cited the experience of Emergency, imposed just a day after a 1975 verdict of the Allahabad High Court which pronounced then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices and barred her from holding elected posts.
“Why was Emergency imposed... Real provocation for imposition of Emergency was the Allahabad HC judgment... Reflects their outlook about judiciary. legendary judge HR Khanna was denied and superseded for the post of Chief Justice of India, that is their record,” said Prasad.
In its response, the Congress claimed that the independence of the judiciary “is in danger” and asked if it would now speak in one voice to state “enough is enough”.
The Congress’s sharp reaction came after the Government returned to the Supreme Court collegium its recommendation to elevate Justice K M Joseph to the apex court and asked it to reconsider it.
“Indian judiciary is in danger. And if our judiciary is not united to protect its independence then democracy is in danger...They want to pack High Courts with their own people,” senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal told the media here.
Sibal said there are 410 vacancies of judges across the country out of the total approved strength of 1079 judges.
“We want to know as to who will stand for judicial independence. Will the judiciary speak in one voice that enough is enough,” he said.
The judiciary is under the “most vicious attack ever” and totalitarianism will stump democracy if the nation does not rise now, Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala alleged.
“PM Modi’s ‘revenge politics’ qua judiciary and ‘conspiratorial suffocation’ of Supreme Court exposed again,” Surjewala said on Twitter, adding that Justice Joseph, who heads the Uttarakhand High Court, is India’s most senior chief justice.
“Yet Modi Government refuses to clear his elevation to the SC as retribution for quashing presidential rule in UttarakhandIJ” he said.