Hours after a Karnataka High Court judge, Justice HP Sandesh put on record the allegations that he was indirectly threatened with transfer allegedly by another fellow judge for passing orders against the head of state Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Congress party on Tuesday used this incident to target the union government and accused it of ‘intimidating, interfering and influencing’ the judiciary.
Karnataka has a BJP government at the present. The head of the ACB is Seemanth Kumar Singh, a 1996 batch IPS officer of the rank of Additional Director General of Police.
Rajya Sabha member and senior lawyer, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, while addressing a press conference in Delhi at the Congress headquarters, stated that the Karnataka incident was ‘another’ example of the Modi Government’s approach to the judiciary which he stated, is composed of six approaches, – Intimidation, Interference, Influence and Sabotage, Subjugate and Subvert the judiciary.
“The government has excessively but selectively delayed judicial appointment proposals both to the High Courts and to the Supreme Court, Justice Qureshi being only one out of many such names. It has arbitrarily bifurcated approved judicial appointees’ lists to the higher judiciary, again selectively, to allow some from the original common list to be appointed quickly, while selectively appointing others after a considerable time lag, thereby irreversibly prejudicing their inter seniority. There is more than one very recent example in a leading High court. It has inaugurated an ambiance of fear, trepidation, anxiety and hesitation in the judicial sector by the misuse of dossier raj and oblique insinuations based thereupon,” Singhvi alleged.
According to him, the government had tried to prevail upon judicial collegia, understandably keen to fill ever increasing vacancies, to do punitive transfers of judicial authorities perceived as inconvenient and attempted illegally and unfairly to interfere, whenever it can and whenever it deems necessary as per its own narrow, party and ideological thinking, with judges and the judiciary in general and the legal process.
Singhvi while referring to the recent incident involving former BJP spokesperson, Nupur Sharma, claimed that ‘intimidation tactics’ were also carried out against the Supreme Court.
“When a bench of the Supreme Court made strong and pertinent observations regarding the reckless conduct of a BJP Spokesperson and the arrogance displayed by her, we saw the three-pronged attack that has become an all too familiar tool of the ruling dispensation. (1) Savage and faceless trolls spewed fake news and propaganda, (2) An orchestrated letter by “Intellectuals” was dispatched (3) One-sided, and even contemptuous, reporting by sections of the Godi media. The Bar, as well as the vast silent majority, stood behind the learned bench for their timely intervention that saved a situation from being exacerbated. However, by attempting to intimidate the Supreme Court, these actors unwittingly exposed the perpetrators and beneficiaries of the violence,” he claimed.
Referring to Monday’s judgment by the Supreme Court on the massive number of under trails in prison, Singhvi said that Congress Party intend, using due process of law, in Congress ruled states, to create in the near future legislative enactments encapsulating, in letter and spirit, as many as possible of the SC guidelines through appropriate state amendments.