The Bombay Lawyers Association on Tuesday filed a petition with the Supreme Court challenging a decision by a high court to dismiss its PIL against Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju for comments they made regarding the judiciary and the collegium system for appointing judges.
The lawyers’ body has challenged the Bombay High Court’s February 9 order of dismissing its plea on the ground that it was not a fit case to invoke the writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution. Lawyer Ahmed Abdi stated that the petition has been filed on Tuesday.
The Bombay Lawyers Association asserted that Rijiju and Dhankhar’s comments and actions demonstrated a lack of faith in the Constitution. In order to prevent Dhankhar from performing his duties as vice president and Rijiju from performing his duties as a cabinet minister for the central government, it had asked for court orders.
According to the PIL, the two executive officials’ “frontal attack not just on the judiciary but the Constitution” has diminished the Supreme Court’s reputation in the public eye.
Earlier, Kiren Rijiju had said the collegium system of appointing judges was “opaque and not transparent”. Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar had questioned the landmark 1973 Kesavananda Bharati judgement that gave the basic structure doctrine.
Dhankhar stated that the verdict set a bad precedent and if any authority questions Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution, it would be difficult to say “we are a democratic nation”.
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