SC ruling on selection of Election commissioners – Courts simply have no right to change constitution

The courts can question the probity in selection of election commissioners, they can question the activities of election commission in accordance with the law, they can even make recommendations to the Government to improve, but for courts to determine the selection of election commissioners is a blatant violation of division of powers enshrined in the constitution.   This is extremely dangerous.

As it is the country is still grappling with an unconstitutional ‘collegium’ system in the selection of the judges which has risen to many serious allegations of corruption (for e.g., the 30% ‘uncle judge’ system, unimaginable backlogs and judges selecting their family members directly or indirectly).  Now we are again seeing the Supreme Court crossing the line in how an election commissioner to be selected.  The job of the Judiciary is  to ensure the constitution approved by Parliament is adhered to.  It simply has no right to alter the constitution.  

India can soon become a banana republic if a judiciary whose selection itself is questionable determines the other parts of the constitution.  We are setting ourselves to a situation where an institution that is not accountable to the Citizens is basically rewriting the constitution.  Even if the judgement says that their ruling holds until Parliament passes a new law, it  does not simply hold water.   The question is under what right does the Supreme Court has to change the constitution?    

Given this situation, the first thing Parliament needs to do is to send a message to the Supreme Court by passing a law in Parliament approved by the President  restoring the status quo and respectfully asking the Judiciary not to cross the line and change the constitution.  If this is allowed to continue we are not going to have a country, we will have an oligarchy of few self appointed people determining the fate of the nation.  If a state assembly (e.g, Maharashtra) can send a message to the Supreme Court by voting in the assembly challenging a ruling they did not agree with, the Center needs to have courage to send a message.  

Then there are other things that are being brought up such as revocation of Article 370 –  that is a law passed by Parliament approved by 2/3 majority, the SC has no business to rule on it.   There is a story of Swami Vivekananda where he was bullied by monkeys at the temple premises that he started to move away from that place, but once he decided to confront them, they ran away.   We cannot let fear drive our actions.   The country cannot shy away and be fearful and let it be taken over by a few men who are completely unaccountable to citizens.  We cannot be fearful  that courts will give more trouble if confronted and shy away.  This is too dangerous.

https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-top-court-orders-bipartisan-panel-select-election-commissioners-media-2023-03-02/

By admin

Satya Dosapati is an activist based in the US working on causes for both India and US. He played an instrumental role in the introduction of paper trail for India’s Electronic Voting Machines called VVPAT that put Indian democracy on a strong foothold by bringing in top international experts and demonstrating the vulnerabilities in Indian EVMs working with local organizations and CEC Qureshi. He organized an All American Rally for Trump bringing in various ethnic communities together in support of Trump Presidential Election that was acknowledged by Republican party and then candidate Trump. The event was covered by most of the national media in Pennsylvania. He is well known for challenging 100 and 30 million dollar lawsuits from Sonia Gandhi proxies in the US when he coordinated a UN protest against Sonia Gandhi representing Mahatma Gandhi values at UN and taking a full page Ad in New York Times exposing her. He has several successes in an activist movement from forcing Andhra Pradesh CM YSR in 2007 in banning conversions inside Hindu temples, bringing attention to the plight of backward caste minor girls in West Bengal being kidnapped and thrown into sexual slavery through love jihad. He led a protest against University of Pennsylvania (Wharton economic forum) for dropping Narendra Modi from keynote speech because of allegations of some leftist professors and got a (private) apology from UPenn President . He initiated the first anti-corruption conference working with Ajit Doval and Dr. Swamy before Anna Hazare protest at New Delhi Vivekananda International foundation and brought in top international anti-corruption personnel from UN (UNODC) and Europe (Eurodad) and other institutions. His YouTube presentation on Plunder of India by Sonia UPA received nearly 2 lacs hits. He was also engaged in animal rights movements in the US for health, environment, and compassion. He received his bachelors from IIT Chennai with graduate degrees in US and is pursuing a career in Telecom in the US. He is a conservative and proud member of the US National Rifle Association (NRA). His Koo id is @SatyaDosapati and several of his articles were published in PGurus and OpIndia news portals. His blog is https://SatyaBlog.org.

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