'Judiciary must be open to scrutiny': Priyanka Chaturvedi on NCERT textbook row

New Delhi: Shiv Sena-UBT Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Friday demanded that all three branches of governance - legislature, executive and judiciary - should be equal before law, and accountable and open to scrutiny.

During Zero Hour, Chaturvedi highlighted the issue of an NCERT textbook carrying a chapter on "corruption in judiciary" on which the Chief Justice of India (CJI) gave directions and NCERT issued an apology on the matter.

"On March 11, with all due respect to the Supreme Court of India and our judicial process and our judiciary, the CJI-led bench again said that the academics who have written this chapter, should not have any role in academics-related matters, public-funded institutions, and government institutions... which I think is judicial overreach and judicial dictatorship," she said.

She alleged that further court directions in the matter of taking action against those criticising the judiciary on social media amounted to "judicial overreach".

"I believe that our three branches of governance should be equal in law, should be accountable, should be open to scrutiny. Any dysfunctionality in that, or any kind of supremacy in that, will lead to a problematic situation for the nation to handle," she said.

"I request the law minister to ensure that there is no such judicial dictatorship or judicial overreach that can create problems in times to come," the Rajya Sabha MP said.

She said one can understand the anger of the judiciary on being singled out on the issue of corruption, but everyone should be accountable to the law and treated equally.

She highlighted that a notice for impeachment of a High Court judge was pending before Parliament as huge amount of cash was recovered from his residence, but he was merely transferred and no action was taken.

Chaturvedi said if an allegation of corruption is made against a politician or an officer, action is taken and a proper investigation is carried out on the charges, but in this case there has been no such thing.