You Can't Direct The President: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar Takes On Judiciary

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday came down heavily on the Indian judiciary after the Supreme Court put a halt on Waqf Amendment Act. VP Jagdeep Dhankhar said, "We cannot have a situation where you direct the President of India, and on what basis? The only right you have under the Constitution is to interpret the Constitution under Article 145(3). It has to be five judges or more."

VP also backed amending Article 145(3), which give court the power to review substantial questions of constitutional law.

"When Article 145(3) was there, the number of judges in the Supreme Court was eight, 5 out of 8, now 5 out of 30 and odd. But forget about it; the judges who issued a mandamus virtually to the President and presented a scenario that it would be the law of the land have forgotten the power of the Constitution. How can that combination of judges deal with something under Article 145(3) if preserved, it was then for five out of eight. We also need to make amends for that now. Five out of eight would mean interpretation will be by majority. Well, five constitutes more than the majority in eight. But leave that aside. Article 142 has become a nuclear missile against Democratic forces, available to the judiciary 24 x 7...," Jagdeep Dhankhar said.

In his speech, the vice president also pointed out weak points of judges. He asked why no FIR was lodged after a huge amount of burnt cash was found at Yashwant Varma's residence.

Referring to the case, Dhankar said if this had happened at your or my house, a rocket speed investigation would have been done. But just because he is a part of judiciary, no action has been taken.

"If the event had taken place at his (common man's) house, the speed would have been an electronic rocket. Now it is not even a cattle cart."

Dhankhar also questioned the three-judge committee set up for the probe, saying an investigation is the domain of the executive and not the judiciary.

"And what can the committee do? The committee can at most make a recommendation. Recommendation to whom? And for what? "The kind of mechanism we have for judges, the only action finally that can be taken is by Parliament (by way of removal of the judge)," he said. The committee report, Dhankhar said, "inherently lacks legal standing".

"It is now over a month. Even if it is a can of worms, even if there are skeletons in the cupboard, (it's) time to blow up the can, time for its lid to go out, and time for the cupboard to collapse. Let the worms and skeletons be in the public domain so that cleansing takes place," Dhankhar said while addressing a group of Rajya Sabha interns. He said for seven days no one knew about the incident."