Govt Vs Judiciary: PIL Seeks Action Against Law Min & Vice Prez for 'Remarks'

Recently, Law Minister Rijiju and Vice President Dhankar have been making remarks on the Collegium & Constitution.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A petition, seeking action against Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar for their remarks on the Collegium, judiciary and the Constitution, has been filed before the Bombay High Court.

Who are the peitioners? The Bombay Lawyers Association, who are the petitioners in the case, have claimed that the two are "continuing their rampage of attack upon the constitution with complete impunity."

“The Petitioner states that the above conduct of the Respondent No. 1 & 2 is nothing limited to attack on judiciary but frontal attack on the Constitution of India. Despite all these derogatory statements towards the judiciary and the Constitution of India, no action against the Respondent No. 1 & 2 has been taken by any constitutional authority.”

- The Petition

What attack? High government functionaries, like the union law minister and the Vice President, have recently been making repeated remarks on the functioning of the apex court, as well as the mode of appointment of judges.

Among other statements:

• Over a month ago Rijiju had criticised the Collegium for being "opaque" and lacking "transparency and accountability."

• According to media reports, he also recently said that the collegium system, which is an administrative job "is keeping the judges extremely busy" and impacting their duties as judges.

• Following this, Rijiju reportedly wrote to Chief Justice DY Chandrachud suggesting that government representatives be included in the Supreme Court collegium

• Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar too, has critiqued the basic structure doctrine of the Constitution and the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC)

So, the petition...  has said that instead of having "faith and allegiance" to the Constitution of India, they have "shown lack of faith in the Constitution and SC by their conduct and their utterances made in public.”

So, what now? The petitioners have requested the court to pass orders restraining Dhankhar from discharging his duties as Vice President, and Rijiju from discharging duties as cabinet minister for Central government. 

However, the public interest litigation (PIL) is yet to be listed for hearing. 

(With inputs from LiveLaw & Bar and Bench)