Judiciary cannot direct President: Jagdeep Dhankhar on Supreme Court ruling

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar. File pic

Voicing concern over a recent Supreme Court ruling prescribing a timeline for the President to decide on bills, Vice President (VP) Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday said India had not bargained for a democracy where judges will legislate, perform Executive functions and act as a "super Parliament".

Last week, the Supreme Court had, for the first time, prescribed that the President should decide on the bills reserved for her consideration by the governor within three months from the date such reference is received.

"There is a directive to the President by a recent judgement. Where are we heading? What is happening in the country? We have to be extremely sensitive. It is not a question of someone filing a review or not. The President being called upon to decide in a time-bound manner, and if not, becomes law," Dhankhar while addressing a group of Rajya Sabha interns here.

"So we have judges who will legislate, who will perform executive functions, who will act as super Parliament, and absolutely have no accountability because law of the land does not apply to them," the VP said.

Sibal slams Dhankhar

Rajya Sabha member Kapil Sibal slammed the VP for questioning the judiciary, saying this is "unconstitutional" and he had never seen any Rajya Sabha chairman make "political statements" of this nature.

Sibal asserted that the Lok Sabha Speaker and the RS Chairman remain equidistant between the opposition and the ruling party, and cannot be the "spokesperson of the party".

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