Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju gave his point of view in the Centre vs Collegium row by sharing an old interview of a retired Delhi High Court judge who felt that the "Supreme Court had hijacked" the Indian Constitution.
Rijiju retweeted the interview amid the ongoing friction between the government and the judicial system. The SC recently made public its communication with the centre on the appointment of of lawyers as judges of the High Courts.
The SC backed the appointment of advocate Saurabh Kripal, who is openly gay, as a judge of the Delhi High Court.
Rijiju shared the interview of retired Delhi HC judge, Justice RS Sodhi, to make his stance clear on the matter. He had earlier criticised the Collegium system and termed it alien to the Constitution.
"Whether you can amend the Constitution? Only Parliament will amend the Constitution. But here I feel the Supreme Court for the first time 'hijacked' the Constitution.
"After 'hijacking', they (the apex court) said that we will appoint (judges) ourselves and the government will have no role in it," Justice Sodhi said in the interview.
'Majority have similar sane views'
Rijiju captioned this post with: "Voice of a judge...Real beauty of Indian Democracy is- it's success. People rule themselves through their representatives. Elected representatives represent the interests of the people & make laws. Our Judiciary is independent and our Constitution is Supreme".
Sodhi also said in the interview that the High Courts are not subservient to the Supreme Court but high court judges start looking at the SC and become subservient.
The Law Minister, in another tweet, said: "Actually majority of the people have similar sane views. It's only those people who disregard the provisions of the Constitution and mandate of the people think that they are above the Constitution of India". (With IANS inputs)
