Public Meeting: 3 PM, 19th January,2018 at Press Club of India New Delhi.
Last week the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court held an unprecedented media conference to express their anguish over what they perceive to be a process under way that threatens the last independent bastion to protect Indian democracy – the judiciary. The four judges made public a letter they had written to the Chief Justice of India some months ago about what they perceived to be irregularities in constitution of benches and assignment of cases and asked for remedial measures. They have said, unless this institution is preserved and it maintains its equanimity, the democracy will not survive in this country, or any country
They revealed that not only did their letter evoke no response, it was followed by even more arbitrary assignment of cases and constitution of benches comprising judges who had no domain knowledge or history of knowledge in the cases that had far-reaching consequences for the people i.e. the Aadhar case that pertains to fundamental questions about the powers of the State and the individual, the right to privacy and public interest. According to media reports, the matter related to allocation of a suitable bench for hearing the case about Judge Loya’s death was the final reason for the four judges of the Supreme Court to make their concerns public.
The other cases that worried the four judges were the Sahara-Birla diaries and the case regarding the allocation of a bench to hear a matter in which judges were allegedly bribed by a medical college in UP to obtain a favourable order. Citing conflict of interest the petitioner in the medical college case had asked CJI Dipak Misra to recuse himself from the decision to assign a bench to hear the matter. The request was not
India has seen what undermining of democratic institutions and compromising of their integrity led to during the Emergency. When independent democratic institutions like the judiciary and the media succumb to political power and interference. Jan Hastakshep and PUCL,Delhi invites you to a dialogue on questions raised by the four senior-most judges of the Apex Court of India which are critical not just in the context of what India has suffered when these very institutions were compromised but also whether such transgressions should at all be borne in the modern Nation State.
Please participate in the dialogue on “Felling of the Last Bastion: Is Indian Democracy in Peril With the Judiciary Becoming a Victim of Political Interference”
Participants: Prashant Bhushan, Dushyant Dave, Mr. N D Pancholi, Poonam (Advocate) and other
Organisers: Jan Hastakshep & PUCL,Delhi.
Venue: Press club of India, Date: 19-01-2018 at 03.00 pm onwards
Janhastakshep: A campaign against fascist designs
& PUCL Delhi
New Delhi
13 January, 2018
