Former Supreme Court judge Justice Jasti Chelameswar has asserted that the Supreme Court of India, the highest court of India, has the power to issue directions to all government officials, including those holding constitutional posts like the President and the Governor, to discharge their duties.
Addressing a conference on ‘75 years of the Indian Constitution’, he said that while the judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts have the power to declare laws passed by Parliament or state assemblies as unconstitutional, they also have the power to issue directions to the President and Governors holding constitutional posts in relation to the discharge of their official duties.
Referring to Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s remarks expressing anger over the Supreme Court’s imposition of a deadline on the President to take action on bills reported by the Governors within 3 months, Justice Chelameswar questioned why we, as judges, do not have the power to impose a deadline on the representatives of the people who made those laws to perform their duties when we have the power to declare a law made by the Parliament unconstitutional?
Meanwhile, retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ajay Rastogi said that the recent Supreme Court’s statement that the actions of the President and Governors are subject to judicial review is not a step beyond the Lakshman Rekha. Speaking in an interview to a news agency, he reiterated that Parliament has the supreme power to amend the rules if it disagrees with the views of the courts.
On the other hand, former judge Justice Kurian Joseph welcomed the Supreme Court’s verdict imposing a specific time limit for passing bills, stating that the powers granted to the President by the Constitution of our country are limited. He was responding to Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s comments in an interview to an English media that the Supreme Court is acting as a ‘super parliament’ and that Article 142 has become a ‘nuclear missile’ against democratic forces.
He said that the Supreme Court acts as the guardian of the Constitution. Reminding him of the powers of the Governor and the President, he said that the Supreme Court was right to give its verdict invoking Article 142 when the bills were kept pending for months.