India’s belief in democracy has helped the nation thrive as a shining example of this form of governance, said Abhishek Manu Singhvi, senior advocate and MP, at Second Law and Constitution Dialogue, presented by Legally Speaking.
He identified the pillars of the country’s democracy as secularism; co-ownership of people in democracy; “accidental” federalism brought about by unitary form of constitution and parliamentary democracy.
“The essence of democracy needs to be protected through institutions like the Judiciary, Army and the CAG and politicisation of these institutions,” he said.
The basic structure doctrine, PILs and the judicial review are also the key safeguards of democracy, he said.
In a veiled reference to the expulsion of 14 MPs expulsion from Parliament during debate on the protesters’ intrusion into Lok Sabha, the veteran lawyer said the divisiveness or expulsions should not be the calling card of parliamentary democracy, “give-and-take is part of parliamentary democracy that needs to respected”.
Talking about the features of our democracy, Singhvi said the faith of founders in nationalism and their aim to foster a social revolution and the universal franchise and elections are their great achievements.
The presence of fundamental rights followed by a set of directive principles are also unique features of our constitution and democracy, he said.
The structure of our Supreme Court is also a key feature of our democracy, he said. “It remains to be the most trusted organ of our democracy as it deals with a vast array of cases. So, I am not in support of an argument to make the Supreme Court a constitution court alone,” he said.
He also highlighted the post-emergency spurt in Supreme Court’s judicial review, making it the most activist – highly judicially reviewing court.
Singhvi also talked about the scourge of pending cases in courts, almost 5 crore and another 3.5 crore in revenue courts, and described the country’s judicial system as “over legislated but under enforced”.
The veteran lawyer also hit out at the pendency in High Courts, adding that all given points of time since Independence one-third of the posts out of 1,100 in High Courts have remained vacant.
