It is disappointing, to say the least, to see Supreme Court judges trying another judicial monkey-jump with damaging long term consequences for the country’s democracy.
Justice K M Joseph led Supreme Court bench’s latest observations on the petitions relating to Election Commission of India are not only dismissive of the excellent track record of Election Commission thus far, they also amount to plain encroachment into the areas of executive and legislature jurisdiction.
It needs a special thick-skinnery to judge an excellent institution like ECI when you preside over a system that is perhaps the most degenerate, corrupt, inefficient and apathetic in modern constitutional system of India. If there is one institution that has failed India and its people, it is undoubtedly the judiciary and its higher and lower echelons.
The efficiency of courts and the corruption, favoritism and every ill that rules the corridors of justice is well-known to the general public.
In contrast, if there is one institution that has worked immaculately and has delivered the unexpected results, despite umpteen limitations unique to India, it is undoubtedly the Election Commission of India.
That the Hon judges are showing a penchant to question and have a say in the appointment and working of Chief Election Commissioner is very unfortunate.
It would be more prudent to let the Election Commission of India do something to ensure that the cases pending in the lower and higher courts are adjudicated within a timely manner and more efficient and ideologically unpolluted and independent people are appointed as judges.
People would trust an ECI appointed judge more than the judges self-selected and self-appointed via a collegium route.
The sheer number of pending cases is a big question mark on the efficiency of the judiciary. Instead of addressing its own lacunae, the judiciary now wants to poke its nose in the appointment and working of Election Commission of India, which should clearly be none of its business.
The government must stop this imprudent judicial overreach and nip the inimical transgression on other institutions of democracy being mounted by ideologically arrayed prashantbhushanly advocacy forces wielding disproportionate influence in the corridors of judiciary.
