POLITICAL ACTIVISTS SHOULD STOP ATTACKING THE APEX COURT

Soon after a Division Bench of the Supreme Court virtually indicted suspended BJP spokesperson, Nupur Sharma, for her remarks about the Prophet, right wing activists took to the social media to target the judiciary. This unfortunate attack on the Apex court and its two learned Judges, Justice Surya Kant and Justice JB Pardiwala was completely avoidable and in fact, lowers our belief in the rule of law. The honourable Judges had declined to entertain Nupur’s plea to club the FIRs registered against her in various parts of the country for her comments and observed that she had a “loose tongue’’, “is singlehandedly responsible for what is happening’’ and she should have apologised to the Nation. While the BJP did not take up the issue directly, many of its supporters took to twitter and other social media handles to question the Supreme Court. This is obviously a serious matter since the judiciary is an essential part of our democratic system and along with the Executive and the Legislature is assigned the role of upholding the Constitution. In a totally unrelated development, Chief Justice N.V.Ramana while speaking at a function in San Fransisco, accused politicians of trying to undermine the authority of the courts. He said that the ruling dispensation expects that every action should be endorsed by the courts. The judiciary is not bound by the dikats of any political party and is only responsible for upholding the Constitution. Strong words indeed. Senior Supreme Court lawyer, Kapil Sibal while speaking to a news agency stated that certain sections of the judiciary had let the people down and stated that after being on the bar for over 50 years, his head hangs in shame looking at the manner where certain courts turn a blind eye to gross violation of the rule of law. This fresh debate on the judiciary as long as it is done in the right spirit is fine but trolling judges for their comments, amounts to contempt of the majesty of our judicial system. Kapil has expressed his views in a particular context and so has the Chief Justice. But ordinary citizens may be entitled to their opinion, yet they should ensure that they do not exceed the Lakshman Rekha where the sanctity of the Highest Court gets compromised. Attempts to link Nupur Sharma’s remarks with what happened in Udaipur and Amrawati could be part of a natural reaction. However, it must be clearly understood that the terror act by the killers of Kanhaiya Lal is highly condemnable. Therefore, spokespersons and supporters of all parties must act in a responsible manner so as to contain this hatred which is being spread in our country by vested interests. The National Investigation Agency is probing the Udaipur incident and would certainly come out with its findings shortly. Such cases should be speedily tried in fast track courts to give exemplary punishment to the perpetrators so that others get this strong message. The independence of the judiciary must be preserved at all cost and no attempt should ever be made to undermined the authority and wisdom of the Courts.