State organs must cease fire to avoid constitutional chaos 

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has taken the brush between the executive and the judiciary to the next level by questioning the doctrine of basic structure brought in by the Supreme Court through the Kesavananda Bharati judgment in 1973. In his view, the doctrine set a bad precedent. The current tussle between the judiciary and the executive began with the apex court striking down the government’s decision to set up a National Judicial Appointments Commission for the appointment of judges to the SC and the high courts. The SC contended that taking away its power to appoint judges would compromise the judiciary’s independence, thereby going against the basic structure of the Constitution, which mandates the separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive. Dhankhar made his point quite succinctly, that if any authority questions Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution, it would be difficult to say: “We are a democratic nation”.

The vice president’s remarks may bring into question even the landmark Golaknath ruling of the SC. The court had ruled in the 1967 Golaknath vs State of Punjab case that Parliament could not curtail any of the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution. The Constitution has given the SC the power to review laws made by the legislature and check their constitutional validity. Given the complex nature of arguments on both sides, the current tangle could be long-drawn. The two organs of the State have enough powers to transform people’s lives. They must work in their respective domains with the spirit of accommodation and cooperation. The constant probing of the judiciary’s stands on crucial issues has given the opposition parties an opportunity to make themselves heard as well. The Congress was quick to recall the remarks of former vice president Venkaiah Naidu that none of the three organs of the State—legislature, judiciary or executive—can claim to be supreme; it is the Constitution that is supreme.

The Left parties, too, have cautioned against undermining judicial independence. They have expressed the resolve to oppose any system of judicial appointments where the government plays the dominant role. All sides must cease fire and not allow the country to enter constitutional chaos.