A citizen’s fundamental rights cannot be compromised, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said on Sunday, while speaking at an event to mark Constitution Day, PTI reported.
“The fundamental rights are in the core value and the bedrock of the Constitution,” Misra said, calling the Constitution a “lucid” and “living” document. “The Supreme Court of India believes we are only under Constitutional sovereignty, and we shall practise it...One single religion that everyone must follow is the Constitutional religion.”
The chief justice also refuted the claim that the judiciary was encroaching on the domain of the legislature and the executive, responding to a statement by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
At the event, Prasad said governance “must remain” with those elected to govern, The Times of India reported. He said that while Public Interest Litigation served the purpose of dispensing justice to the poor, they should not be used as “a substitute for governance and the law-making powers of the executive and the legislature”.
“The founding fathers clearly meant that governance must remain in the realm of those elected to govern by the people of India and accountable to the people of India,” Prasad said, adding that while the independence of the judiciary was important, judicial accountability, probity and propriety were equally necessary.
On Prasad’s remark about the litigation, Misra said the Supreme Court believes in and practised “Constitutional sovereignty”. He said that while no right was absolute, there should be no fetters that “destroy the central dogma of the Constitution”.
Chief Justice Misra also pointed out that the judiciary should focus on reducing pending cases and reject frivolous petitions.
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