PM Modi attacks ‘vintage Congress culture to bully’ judiciary, Kharge hits back with ‘your sins’

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hit back at the Prime Minister with a post on X: “You are talking about Judiciary. You conveniently forget that 4 senior-most Supreme Court judges were forced to hold an unprecedented press conference and warn against “destruction of Democracy”. That happened under your regime. One of the judges was nominated by your Govt to the Rajya Sabha. So who wants a ‘committed judiciary’?”.

To browbeat and bully others is vintage Congress culture.

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.

No wonder 140 crore Indians… https://t.co/dgLjuYONHH

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 28, 2024

“You forget that your party has fielded a former HC Judge in West Bengal for the current Lok Sabha elections. Why was this candidature bestowed on him?”.

Kharge said institution after institution “is being ‘bullied’ by you into submission, so stop pinning the blame on the Congress party, for your own sins! You have mastered the art of manipulating democracy and hurting the Constitution”.

The letter by the lawyers alleged that the “vested interest group… is trying to pressure the judiciary, influence judicial process and defame… courts on the basis of frivolous logic and stale political agendas”.

“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” and “are damaging to our courts and threaten our democratic fabric,” it stated.

The letter has been signed, among others, by senior advocates Harish Salve, Adish Aggarwala, Manan Kumar Mishra and Pinky Anand.

It claimed that “this heated interest group operates in various ways. They create false narratives of a supposed ‘better past’ and ‘golden period’ of the courts, contrasting it with the happenings in the present. These are nothing but intentional statements, made to sway court decisions and to embarrass the courts for certain political gains”.

PM @narendramodi ji,

You are talking about Judiciary.

1. You conveniently forget that 4 senior-most Supreme Court judges were forced to hold an unprecedented press conference and warn against “destruction of Democracy”. That happened under your regime.

One of the judges was…

— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) March 28, 2024

Pointing out that “it’s troubling to see some lawyers defend politicians by the day, and then try to influence judges through the media at night”, the letter stated that “implying that the courts in the past were easier to influence shakes the public’s trust in them”.

It alleged that these lawyers “have also concocted an entire theory of ‘bench fixing’ – which is not just disrespectful and contemptuous” but “an attack on the honour and dignity of our courts” and “at times, it also leads to slanderous attacks and insinuations on respected judges”.

It said members of the “vested interest group… have also stooped to the level of comparing our courts to those countries where there is no rule of law and accusing our judicial institutions with unfair practices. These aren’t just criticisms; they are direct attacks meant to damage the public’s trust in our judiciary and threaten the fair application of our laws”.

My statement on PM @narendramodi‘s remarks on Judiciary – https://t.co/yLtSR8zKkF pic.twitter.com/RSGc2jIrBC

— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) March 28, 2024

“There is a clear ‘My way or the highway’ approach at work – any decision they agree with is hailed but any decision they disagree with is trashed, smeared and disregarded,” the letter stated.

The letter stated that “the timing of their modus operandi also merits closer scrutiny – they do it at very strategic timings, when the nation is all set to head into elections” and “we are reminded of similar antics in 2018-2019 when they took to their ‘hit and run’ activities, including fabricating wrong narrative”.

“These efforts to belittle and manipulate the courts for personal and political reasons cannot be allowed under any circumstances,” the lawyers said and urged the Supreme Court “to stand strong and take steps to protect our courts from these attacks”.

“Staying silent or doing nothing could accidentally give more power to those who mean to do harm,” the letter said, adding that “this is not the time to maintain dignified silence”.

The letter comes days after Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal told a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court: “When the history of this court will be written, this will not be a golden period.” Sibal said this when the bench, presided by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, declined to grant any relief to his client, BRS leader K Kavitha who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi excise policy case. In response, Justice Khanna said, “Let’s see.”.

Earlier this year, the CJI, responding to criticism by a section of lawyers on allocation of cases, told news agency PTI in an interview, “I am very very clear in my mind that if the credibility of the institution of the Supreme Court is to be maintained, we have to ensure that the allocation of cases in the Supreme Court is not going to be a lawyer-driven allocation. It has to be an allocation which we do in terms of our processes and systems which are laid down in the Supreme Court. Having said that, I can only say well, you have to trust your decision-makers.”