New Delhi: “Ye law and order ka mudda hai. Ye mera vishay nahin hai. (This is a matter of law and order; it doesn’t pertain to my domain),” Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said on Monday, when asked about the situation in view of the protests against the CEC in Delhi over the past few days and the associated restrictions.
The CJI, however, asserted that the “doors of the Supreme Court are open for everybody,” whether a commoner or a lawmaker, after he was asked how the opposition leaders can put forth their grievances after he had declined a meeting with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
He said this during an interaction with reporters on the sidelines of an event to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) at Vigyan Bhawan here, hours before opposition MPs and leaders accompanied by hundreds of supporters and activists began their “March for Democracy” to the Supreme Court to submit a petition on their “vote chori” (vote theft) charge and against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Kharge, who is also the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, and Gandhi had written to CJI Kant on October 10, seeking a meeting between 4 and 5 pm on October 12 to hand over a memorandum demanding an end to vote theft, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, halting of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and switching back to the paper ballot format.
The CJI, however, has declined to meet them.
Asked about members of the opposition seeking time to meet him, he said, in his reply to the letter, he has “cited some reasons” and expressed his position that he “won’t be able to meet”.
When further asked that there are many MPs among them who are raising grievances, and how should they put forth their views, the CJI said, “Doors of the Supreme Court are open for everybody.”
“Any petition… anyone who desires, whether a common man or a member of any elected body, every citizen of India has a right to reach us. We will hear issues in consonance with the law, and whatever rights people deserve, we will grant them,” he said.
The last few days have seen protests against CEC Kumar in different parts of Delhi. Over the weekend, the capital turned into a fortress, with massive deployment of security personnel, closure of 45 metro stations and intensive checks at the city’s border points.
Thousands of protesters, including Cockroach Janta Party leaders and former chief ministers, were detained.
The CJI, when asked about the string of protests in Delhi and the situation in the city, including the restrictions on movement, said, “Ye law and order ka mudda hai. Ye mera vishay nahin hai”.
Asked about the opposition’s march to the Supreme Court, the CJI said, “I will not make any comments on it.”
On Congress leaders Kharge and Gandhi writing to him, the CJI said, “I had received a letter yesterday, and I have given the reply. Letter was of day before yesterday, but I was out,” he said.
He refused to divulge the content of the letter and said, “Please ask the content of the letter from them. I have maintained its confidentiality.”
The letter sent by the CJI in his reply to them was shared by the Congress on Monday.
In his letter to Gandhi and Kharge, the CJI declined the meeting on Monday and told them that discussing pending cases would be improper and urged them to file a petition with the court either physically or online.
“Therefore, convening a meeting to discuss pending cases would wholly contravene the principle of Separation of Powers, an intrinsic facet of the basic structure doctrine of the Constitution of India, and would be incompatible with the established ethics and judicial propriety,” Justice Kant said in his reply to them.
The CJI was also asked about the Supreme Court not meeting with the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on simultaneous elections.
“There are more grounds on this. I have given more than one ground on this. I had said that there is a possibility of conflict of interests and the matter can come to court tomorrow. So, it was my and my colleagues’ view that we should avoid any conflict of interest,” he said.
P P Chaudhary, chairman of the JPC on simultaneous elections, had recently said that the Supreme Court had initially scheduled an “informal interaction” with the panel following its request for a meeting with the judges, but later called it off as it felt that it was “not appropriate”.
Earlier in his address at the NHRC foundation day, “Thirty-three years ago, Parliament created this Commission to stand guard over human dignity. In the years since, it has grown from a new idea into a trusted address for the aggrieved.”
“If the Constitution is the promise, the Commission is one of its keepers. It goes where the court cannot easily go; it listens to those who cannot easily speak, and it can act on its own without waiting to be asked,” the CJI said.
NHRC chairperson Justice V Ramasubramanian (retd) in his address said CJI Kant’s accepting its invitation to be the chief guest at the function, especially at a time when he is in “great demand”, is “something remarkable”.
His remarks came in the backdrop of multiple petitions filed in the apex court amid the ongoing protests in Delhi.
The NHRC chief further said the office of the CJI has become the “single most important, the most powerful, the most vibrant, and at the same time, the most vulnerable office in the country”.
“The office of the Chief Justice of India is an office which is put to the test of fire, ‘Agni Pariksha’, every day, nay, every minute, not necessarily by sacred souls at all times,” he said.
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