KOCHI: The respect and trust that people in the country have for courts have been shaken to the core by the incident involving a stash of cash found at a judge’s official residence in New Delhi, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar said on Monday, terming the incident as the judiciary’s “Ides of March”.
Calling for a criminal investigation, Dhankar said, in an interaction with students and faculty of the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (Nuals), that the “citadel is tottering because of the incident.”
The Vice-President stressed that the system should have treated it as a criminal matter from the start, but added that the Centre is currently constrained by a Supreme Court ruling from the early 1990s. “But so far, there has been no FIR. The government at the central level is handicapped because an FIR cannot be registered in view of a judgment of the Supreme Court rendered in early 90s,” he said.
Expressing reservations over the appointment of judges to certain posts after their retirement, Dhankar said that this is seriously impairing the institution. “Certain constitutional authorities are not permitted to hold assignments after retirement, he said.
Dhankhar also praised Kerala as the land that has gifted the country many luminous minds and upright public servants.