Govt responsible for fight in judiciary, says Ram Jethmalani

GREATER NOIDA: The fight among the Supreme Court judges is a creation of the executive and there are a few people in the judiciary who can’t resist the kind of pressure that the executive can exercise on them, Rajya Sabha MP and eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani said on Thursday. He was speaking at a function at Bennett University here.
Stating that the judiciary has been “spoiled by the rulers”, Jethmalani said that every person who is involved in this fight has his eye on sharing some favours from the executive. He was responding to questions from law students here.

“It is not the judiciary’s fault but there are a few people who can’t resist the kind of pressure that the government is able to exercise upon them. See, they have created a fight among the judges themselves,” Jethamalani said.

Asked about his opinion on Justice B H Loya’s death, he said that although the issue has attracted his attention for long, he does not want to make public statements without studying the matter. “Give me two weeks’ time and I will be able to respond,” he said.

Talking about the pendency of cases in the Supreme Court, he said the judiciary’s strength needs to be increased five times and the pressure for the same must come from the bar itself.

He supported allowing the practice of foreign law firms in India stating that it will open the doors for Indian lawyers and the Indian bar council will benefit if that happens.

When asked why Aksai Chin was not being talked about even though the Kashmir issue was so topical, he said former Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf had brought his proposals for settlement of the issue.

“I personally think that the problem of Kashmir was almost solved by Musharraf when he was here. I saw his proposals through some Pakistani friends. I communicated to him and sought his permission to publish these proposals as my own. He allowed it and I published them in a book,” he said.

“China is more powerful and mischievous. Fortunately, today it is our friendship with Trump that is helping us. One of Modi’s good thing is that he is carrying on a good friendship with Trump and the Chinese are under control,” he said.

He, however, concluded by saying that his only goal now was to ensure that PM Modi does not return for a second term. “He will not return in 2019. Modi had been talking about black money for two years and had communicated with me about it before the elections. The party reversed its stand in a public announcement by the BJP president in the fourth year,” he said.