The recent letter by a group of lawyers, including senior Supreme Court advocates Harish Salve and Adish Agarwala, to the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, on safeguarding the judiciary, is a direct fallout of the exposure of corruption in the apex court’s verdict on electoral bonds, the Left-leaning All India Lawyers Union (AILU) in a statement.
AILU leaders, senior lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, and senior lawyer P.V. Surendranath, said the letter is only a canard against responsible lawyers and lawyers’ forums, who are consistently fighting for protection of the independence of the judiciary, and to safeguard the basic structure of the Indian Constitution. The AILU said the group of lawyers has been silent in the past, when the present regime at the Centre has been making a direct onslaught against the basic structure of the Constitution, including the independence of the judiciary.
They said people holding responsible posts had attacked “judicial review” and the “basic structure” in the name of supremacy of Parliament, and had demanded the determining of a role for the executive in the selection of judges. “There has been direct intervention by the Executive Government in the matter of transfer of judges of the High Courts,” the AILU said.
They added that the Narendra Modi government has been indulging in post-retirement appointments for judges “to manipulate and interfere with independence of judiciary”, and disrespected decisions of the Collegium on appointments and transfers of judges on several occasions. “Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on retirement was nominated to Rajya Sabha by the Modi regime. Within six weeks of Justice Abdul Nazeer’s retirement as judge of the Supreme Court he was appointed as Governor of Andhra Pradesh,” the AILU said.
The AILU said the verdict on the electoral bonds case and the “undemocratic fact-check unit” of the Press Information Bureau had irritated the “Group” of lawyers. “The baseless allegations - canards - in the letter are not the general opinion of the advocates and legal fraternity across India at all. ‘Group of Lawyers’ do not represent advocates and legal fraternity in India. The Group’s attempt in the name of safeguarding judiciary is only a camouflage and veiled browbeat against the judiciary as it exercises the power of judicial review in demonstration of independence and accountability of the judiciary. It is also an attempt to misguide the people with a false narrative projecting themselves as saviour of judiciary,” the AILU said.
