New Delhi
SC judge DY Chandrachud said on Saturday irrespective of the electoral legitimacy of the government, the Constitution is the North Star against which the conformity of every State action or inaction would have to be judged.
He asserted majoritarian tendencies must be questioned against the background of “our constitutive promise”. “Any semblance of authoritarianism, clampdown on civil liberties, sexism, casteism, otherisation on account of religion or region is upsetting a sacred promise made to our ancestors who accepted India as their constitutional republic,” Justice Chandrachud said.
He was speaking on the topic Students as the Constitution’s Vanguards at a programme organised by Shikshan Prasarak Mandali, a Maharashtra-based organisation that works in the field of education, on the 101st birth anniversary of his father Justice YV Chandrachud, the longest-serving CJI.
India would be well into the 71st year of the constitutional republic and it is understandable many may feel country’s democracy is no longer new and the need to study constitutional history and engage with framework isn’t as worthwhile, he said.