Reacting to Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde’s comment that the Supreme Court too has limitations while hearing a petition on Delhi violence, Congress leader Ashwani Kumar on Tuesday said that the comment “detracts from the highest court’s moral and constitutional authority”.
“The CJI’s lament that the highest court was not “equipped” to handle “pressure” and that it cannot prevent events that impinge on the citizens’ fundamental right to life, liberty and dignity, detracts from the highest court’s moral and constitutional authority. We know that pressure and power are integral to each other, pressure being the price of power. The CJI is the highest judicial authority and cannot suggest helplessness in the discharge of duty, plainly cast upon the court by the Constitution, as the final arbiter between liberty of citizens and State power,” Mr. Kumar said in a statement.
“Constitutional courts as keepers of the conscience are expected to rise in defense of the Constitution. Perceived diminution of their role and subjectivity in judicial decision making will have far reaching consequences for the future of our Constitutional democracy,” he added.