Vice President and Senior Advocate Jagdeep Dhankhar said on Wednesday that the Supreme Court’s Kesavananda Bharati judgment of 1973, which limits the power of parliament to amend the Constitution, is incorrect and started a wrong tradition. He added that the judgment gave the impression that parliament can amend the Constitution but not its basic structure. He also criticized what he considered as public posturing from judicial platforms and referred to the recent observations by the Supreme Court which had taken an unfavourable view of the comments he made about the Collegium system of appointing judges to the High Courts and the Supreme Court. He said he will decline the Attorney General on this point and appeal to all parties to confine to their sense of propriety, self-respect, and commitment to the Constitution, and that dialogue through public platforms is not a wholesome mechanism of communication.

The Vice President stated that in a democracy, the separation of powers between the three branches – legislature, executive, and judiciary – is crucial for its success and survival. He emphasized that the legislature, executive, and judiciary must act in harmony, and that each branch should stick to its own role and not encroach on the responsibilities of the others. He also mentioned that the judiciary striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act in 2015 was an unprecedented event in the democratic world, and that parliamentary sovereignty and autonomy are essential for the preservation of democracy and cannot be compromised by the executive or judiciary.