The recent letter by a group of lawyers, including senior Supreme Court advocates Harish Salve and Adish Agarwala, to the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, on safeguarding the judiciary, is a direct fallout of the exposure of corruption in the apex court’s verdict on electoral bonds, the Left-leaning All India Lawyers Union (AILU) in a statement.
AILU leaders, senior lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, and senior lawyer P.V. Surendranath, said the letter is only a canard against responsible lawyers and lawyers’ forums, who are consistently fighting for protection of the independence of the judiciary, and to safeguard the basic structure of the Indian Constitution. The AILU said the group of lawyers has been silent in the past, when the present regime at the Centre has been making a direct onslaught against the basic structure of the Constitution, including the independence of the judiciary.
They said people holding responsible posts had attacked “judicial review” and the “basic structure” in the name of supremacy of Parliament, and had demanded the determining of a role for the executive in the selection of judges. “There has been direct intervention by the Executive Government in the matter of transfer of judges of the High Courts,” the AILU said.
