A day after a group of former judges and bureaucrats wrote an open letter criticising the recent observations of the Supreme Court in the hearing of the case pertaining to the suspended BJP leader, Nupur Sharma, the CPI has urged Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana to respond to the issue.
Addressing the media here on Wednesday, CPI national secretary K. Narayana said, “The CJI may not have been there in the country at that time. The CJI is a part of the judicial system, and the issues raised by the intellectuals pertain to the system as a whole. Today, there may be open letters, but tomorrow people may raise their voice against it.”
Stating that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre too was silent on the open letter, Mr. Narayana alleged that the BJP was trying to turn the tide in its favour.
Referring to the CJI’s observation that mediation was necessary in dispute resolution, Mr. Narayana said it might work in ideal conditions and societies, but not in India. “As long as crime-politics nexus prevails, the poor will have not access to justice through meditation,” he observed.
On the growing demand for doing away with the Collegium system in the wake of the SC Judges’ observations, the CPI leader said there was a debate on the Indian Judicial Collegium system. Bringing the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) in place of the Collegium was not desirable, he said.
Referring to the issues in the State, he said Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy miserably failed in achieving Special Category Status (SCS). Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy washed his hands off by merely submitting a memorandum on the issue. Instead, he should have mounted pressure on the Centre saying his party would support the government’s presidential nominee only if SCS was accorded to Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Narayana added.
CPI State secretary K Ramakrishna spoke.
