Congress on Dhankhar’s comments on judiciary: ‘Extraordinary attack’

He once again highlighted the 2015 decision of the Supreme Court to strike down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, and added, “Parliamentary sovereignty and autonomy cannot be permitted to be qualified or compromised as it is quintessential to survival of democracy.”

Responding to the Vice-President in a series of tweets on Thursday, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said Dhankhar was wrong to claim that Parliament is supreme. “It is the Constitution that is supreme,” Chidambaram said, adding, “In fact, the Hon’ble Chairman’s views should warn every Constitution-loving citizen to be alert to the dangers ahead.”

“The ‘basic structure’ doctrine was evolved in order to prevent a majoritarian-driven assault on the foundational principles of the Constitution,” Chidambaram wrote.

To emphasise the point about the basic structure doctrine, Chidambaram said, “Suppose Parliament, by a majority, voted to convert the parliamentary system into a Presidential system. Or repeal the State List in Schedule VII and take away the exclusive legislative powers of the States. Would such amendments be valid?”

He added, “After the NJAC Act was struck down, nothing prevented the Government from introducing a new Bill. The striking down of one Act does not mean that the ‘basic structure’ doctrine is wrong.”

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, the general secretary in charge of communications, tweeted, “In my 18 years as an MP, I’ve never heard anyone criticise the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati judgment of Supreme Court. In fact, legal luminaries of BJP like Arun Jaitley hailed it as a milestone. Now, Chairman of Rajya Sabha says it was wrong. Extraordinary attack on the judiciary!”

Congress leader and the MP from Sri Anandpur-Sahib in Punjab, Manish Tewari, tweeted, “Rather than critiquing the Basic Structure Doctrine enunciated by Supreme Court in Re Kesvananda Bharti Hon’ble Vice President @jdhankhar1 should try & find out how many countries have formally encapsulated Basic Structure Doctrine in their Constitutions.”

Former Kerala minister and CPI(M) Central Committee member Thomas Isaac criticised Dhankhar’s comments, saying, “Vice President Dhankhar’s theory of Parliamentary Sovereignty is only a ploy to subvert independence of judiciary, a basic structure of our Constitution. Parliamentary majority does not empower the executive to cherry pick the judges and create a judiciary subservient to it.”

The comments on Wednesday were not the first instance of Dhankhar criticising the judiciary. On December 7, presiding over Rajya Sabha for the first time on the opening day of the Winter Session of Parliament, Dhankhar called the striking down of the NJAC Act a “severe compromise” of parliamentary sovereignty and disregard of the “mandate of the people”. He had also said that Parliament, being the custodian of the “ordainment of the people”, was duty-bound to “address the issue” and expressed confidence that “it will do so”.