Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday accused the Centre of insulting the judiciary and working against the Constitution, PTI reported.
Mayawati’s comments came a day after Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the ministry was not committing a “cardinal sin” by reconsidering some proposals made by the Supreme Court collegium on the appointment of judges. Prasad said the Law Ministry was not a “post office” that would only process collegium’s recommendations on judicial appointments.
“The malicious behaviour of the executive with the judiciary is not right,” Mayawati said in a statement on Tuesday. “And it is an indication of the Centre’s opinionated and arbitrary character. If the Union Law Ministry is not a post office, it has no right to become a police station, as the same has not been guaranteed by the Constitution.”
Referring to the disagreements of four top judges of the Supreme Court with Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Prasad said on Monday that the judiciary had enough “foresight and statesmanship” to settle its differences.
In April, the government did not approve the collegium’s recommendation to elevate Justice KM Joseph to the Supreme Court. A month later, the collegium said that “further deliberation” and “broad-based consideration” of names of High Court chief justices was required before sending its reiteration to the Centre on promoting Joseph to the top court.
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