Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday warned that any “encroachment” on Parliament’s domain by other organs of the state would upset the “delicate apple cart” of governance, saying the constitutional provision for the Supreme Court to interpret laws or the Constitution is a “small slit” and “cannot be a floodgate”.
Speaking at the Constitution Day celebrations organised by the Law Ministry in New Delhi, Dhankhar said: “Parliament alone is the architect of the Constitution to the exclusion of any other authority, executive or judiciary… Parliament can’t give a judgment to the Supreme Court. Similarly, the Supreme Court can’t write the law for us.
He said: “The people who sit in Parliament are there because the people have expressed their mandate through a legitimate mechanism on a proper platform. That is why Parliament is the soul of democracy…”
The Vice President said that the supremacy of Parliament as the “sole architect of the Constitution” was “unquestionable” and that “it is not subject to interference either by the executive or the judiciary in its task”. Dhankhar said: “The sovereignty of Parliament is synonymous with the sovereignty of the nation and the same is unassailable. Why do I say this? The executive survives only if it has strength in parliament. I don’t want to be a loudmouth, but the other institution also survives only if it is sanctified by Parliament. Therefore, such a body, which is based on the mandate of the people, cannot allow any encroachment on its territory. This will upset the delicate apple cart of governance in a democracy”.
The Vice President said any encroachment on the exclusive domain of Parliament would be a “constitutional aberration”.
Dhankhar said: “Democracy is optimally nurtured when the organs of the state work in harmony… It is a constitutional mandate that all these organs of the state work in their respective domains.”
He said differences must be resolved through statesmanship. “Public posturing that creates perceptions as a strategy to deal with such differences is best avoided,” Dhankhar said.
“…The independence of the judiciary is unquestioned, but the time has come that we must have a mechanism of structured interaction between those who are at the helm of affairs of such institutions so that issues do not come into the public domain,” he said.