JOIN USJudges are jittery as they fear the Centre is snooping on their phone conversations, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday.
The Aam Aadmi Party leader made the sensational charge at the golden jubilee celebrations of the Delhi High Court. He said he had overheard judges talking about being under surveillance.
The audience comprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ministers, Chief Justice of India T S Thakur, judicial officers and bureaucrats.
The charge was soon refuted by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. “I wish to deny with all the authority at my command that the phones of judges have been tapped in India at all,” he said.
Prasad declared the independence of the judiciary was “fundamental, unimpeachable and uncompromising” as far as the government was concerned. The prime minister and others in the Cabinet, he said, had fought during the Emergency for the cause of judicial independence, individual liberty and freedom of the media. The rebuttal came in the presence of Modi.
Kejriwal had said he overheard judges “telling each other that they should not talk on phones because they could be tapped”.
He subsequently clarified, “I don’t know whether it is true or not, but there is widespread fear. If it is true that phones are tapped, then judges can be influenced...”
Justice Thakur called for upholding judicial ethics, and cautioned any aberration could bring disrepute to the entire system.
Litigate less, PM tells govt
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday pitched for reducing the burden on the judiciary, days after the Supreme Court slammed the Centre for unduly delaying judicial appointments. Since the government is the biggest litigant, the load can be brought down if a considered view is taken before cases are filed, he said. The government figures in about 46% of all cases in Indian courts.