'Never seen any Chair make such political statements': Senior MPs slam Vice President Dhankhar for remarks against judiciary

New Delhi: Senior MPs on Friday hit out at Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar for his attack on the Supreme Court, with Kapil Sibal saying that he has never seen any Chair making political statements of this nature.

As Dhankhar questioned the judgement setting a timeline for the President to clear Bills and that the Supreme Court cannot fire a "nuclear missile" at democratic forces by acting as a "super Parliament", RJD MP Manoj K Jha said executive, legislature, judiciary or media should be sensitive and should act with a fine balance while DMK's Tiruchi Siva found his criticism of the ruling "unethical".

Addressing a press conference, Sibal said he was "saddened and surprised" at Dhankhar's statement and that he has noticed a trend where some government officials cite Supreme Court judgement when the verdict suits them and start attacking the judiciary the moment a judgement does not align with their views.

"We must not attack or undermine our judicial institutions. We trust the judiciary to uphold justice and the Constitution.  The independence of the judiciary is fundamental to democracy, without that all the rights are in danger," he said.

When someone criticises the Modi government's actions on Article 370 or Ayodhya issue, he said the apex court judgements are cited to counter criticism but the same set of people find fault with verdicts like the one setting a timeline for the President and Governors to clear Bills.

He also decried Dhankhar calling Article 142 of the Constitution as a "nuclear missile", saying it was not any government but the Constitution which gave the Supreme Court those powers. "The President  acts on the authority and advice of the cabinet. The President has no personal right of their own. Jagdeep Dhankhar should know this," he said, referring to Dhankhar's criticism.

"I have been in Parliament for a long time. I have never seen any Chair make a political statement of this nature, even BJP Chairmen did not do so,” he claimed.

In an apparent attack on the Rajya Sabha Chairman, Sibal said the Speaker of Lok Sabha should remain equidistant to all parties and "no Speaker can be spokesperson for a party. I am not saying he (Dhankhar) is."

Referring to Dhankhar's speech to Rajya Sabha interns on Thursday, he also said the Vice President spoke about the 1975 Emergency and 1984 anti-Sikh riots which were incidents that happened during Congress governments. "You do not talk about 2002 (Gujarat riots when Narendra Modi was Chief Minister) or after 2014 (when Modi became PM). You talk about the Emergency (of 1975) but not the undeclared emergency (now)," he said.

On Dhankhar's remarks why there was no FIR in the recovery of cash from the residence of High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma, Sibal asked why did not he raise the same question when Allahabad High Court Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav made communal remarks.

CPI General Secretary D Raja said Dhankhar’s remarks "appear to legitimise the misuse" of Governors' powers by the RSS-BJP to "undermine" opposition-led state governments, a trend that has "dangerously escalated" in recent years.

"It is deeply concerning that the Presidency of Honourable Droupadi Murmu, the first tribal woman to hold the office, is being used to mask blatantly partisan designs that violate the spirit of constitutionalism and federalism. While incidents like the recovery of cash from a judge’s residence warrant serious scrutiny and course correction, the selective invocation of such cases to discredit the judiciary reveals the real agenda: to weaken judicial independence," he said.

Jha said, "we are in an era of politics where we need to think with sensitivity, whether it is executive, legislature, judiciary or media, there has to be a fine balance."

Siva said that under the separation of powers as per the Constitution the executive, legislative and judiciary have distinct powers and when all  three act on their own spheres, one should not forget that the Constitution is supreme . 

"The recent Supreme Court verdict on the role of Governors and President invoking Article 142 undoubtedly has established that no individual in the name of being a constitutional authority can sit over the bills passed by a legislature indefinitely undermining the constitutional provisions . Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s observations on this SC verdict is unethical! Every citizen is and must be aware that 'the rule of law' prevails in the Union of India," he said.