Jaitley hits back at Digvijay's remark

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh’s attack on the judiciary came in for criticism from the BJP which has asked whether the Supreme Court belittled or strengthened the CBI by insulating it from government interference in the coal block allocation case.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitely, in an article on Tuesday, criticised Digvijay Singh for “speaking out of turn,” which he felt “was unwarranted advice to the judicial institution.”
On Monday, Singh tweeted: “The Supreme Court had described the CBI as a caged parrot. A CAT (Central Administrative Bench) in Bangalore had recently termed the Intelligence Bureau as a chicken. Are we not belittling our institutions?

“In a case like the coal block allocation investigation, a combination of oral observations coupled with a detailed written order blends judicial activism with restraint and statesmanship. The two together contribute to the administration of justice. If judges ever heeded  Digvijay Singh’s ill-advised suggestion of not speaking in courts, hearings would become dull and often lead to miscarriage of justice since an opportunity to correct erroneous impression would be lost,” Jaitley wrote in the article titled “Did the Supreme Court belittle the CBI or strengthen it.”

Jaitley reminded Singh of the apex court monitoring the 2002 Gujarat riots, which was welcomed by him and other Congress leaders, after the investigation was handed over to a special investigating team raised on court orders.

“The likes of Digvijay Singh welcomed that monitoring. It is only when the corruption of the UPA government is being investigated by the CBI and monitored by the Supreme Court that monitoring of investigation is now being termed as constitutionally unacceptable. Such arguments of convenience have very little place in a meaningful public discourse,” Jaitely remarked.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said the CBI’s image has hit the rock bottom. “The agency has been used to pacify leaders of the Samajwadi Party and the BSP in order to contribute to the longevity of the government.