Kapil Sibal’s vice president of criticism says constitutional authority is not appropriate

NEW DELHI: Former law minister Kapil Sibal asked Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday about criticism of the Supreme Court, which was intended to set the president’s three-month deadline to decide on the bill forwarded by the state governor. He said some people in the ruling body criticized the Supreme Court when certain judgments were not suitable for them, even if they quoted orders from the same court that suited their judgment.

Sibal, a former Congress leader and now an independent member of Rajya Sabha, insisted that Article 142 grants the Supreme Court the right to give the people complete judicial justice.

Sibal noted that the president is only the state supervisor who acts on the government’s aid and advice, and under the constitution, the governor must sign the bill if the bill is passed a second time, and if the governor sends it to the president, the latter will sit on it forever. Otherwise, he said, it would be an impact on the legislature.
“I feel sad and surprised to see what Jagdeep Dhakhar said,” Sibar said. “If any institution is trusted all over the country in the present day, it is the judiciary. When some government people don’t like the decisions of the judiciary, they start accusing it of crossing the limits. When they are happy with certain judgments, they tell the opposition that they tell the opposition that the first court raised questions about Article 370 and they didn’t ask any questions. The constitutional authority speaks.”

He also recalled how the opposition politician Dhankhar welcomed the Supreme Court judge’s orders, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said it would last.

Sibar said he was surprised to hear Dhankhar say that Article 142 is like a nuclear missile to the Supreme Court. “How could he say that! He knows that the Constitution has granted the rights of Article 142 to the Supreme Court for full judicial justice? Secondly, I want to tell the Indian people that the President of India is just a leader. When the President acts, he or she acts under the aid of the Council of Ministers, the State party’s aid.