Law Minister Salman Khurshid on Wednesday said the judiciary must appreciate the “pragmatic and practical difficulties” of running the political system since it also comes from the same system.
Khurshid said: “(The) pragmatic and practical difficulties of running the political system (are) not alien to the judiciary because ultimately judiciary also comes from the same system.”
On the recent Supreme Court verdicts, Khurshid said: “I think they (the judiciary and the government) should appreciate each others compulsions but by keeping an eye on the constitutional mandate, which is frankly ultimately safeguarded by the judiciary.”
He called for a formal and informal dialogue between the government and the judiciary. Khurshid said we should not be “detracted by specific issues on which we may have different compulsions” and described the dialogue as the “dialogue of democracy”.
Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia articulated this when he said the judiciary, the executive and Parliament should respect each others’ operational areas, said Khurshid. But to say “something in a lecture and implementing the same institutionally and effectively in day-to-day decision-making requires efforts and endeavours on both the sides”, he said.
Khurshid’s remarks assume significance in the wake of a series of decisions unfavourable to the government taken in the recent past by the apex court, including the one on quashing the appointment of PJ Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner and pulling up the government for inaction in tracking black money stashed away in tax havens.
The apex court also made strong observations on engaging illtrained special police officers from among the tribals of Chhattisgarh to counter the Maoists. The court is also monitoring the investigations into the 2G scam. There was some divergence (between the government and the judiciary) in terms of priorities and articulation and these things have to be worked out, Khurshid said.
Dismissing the impression that the government and the judiciary were not on the best of terms, the minister said: “To tell you honestly, we are both looking in the same direction. Our objectives, which are stated or unstated, articulate or inarticulate, are the same which is to provide in modern democracy a transparent and effective system of policing ourselves and giving the best governance.”
