No Power Above Parliament: VP Jagdeep Dhankhar's Remark Fuels Constitutional Debate

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): Amid BJP MP Nishikant Dubey's controversial remarks on the Supreme Court, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has made a big statement. The Vice President has once again questioned the jurisdiction of the judiciary within the framework of the Indian government set forth in the Constitution. Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has made a big statement regarding the power of Parliament and the Supreme Court. He said that the Parliament is the supreme, there is no authority above it. He said that this is because the MPs who are elected to the Parliament represent the common people. MPs are everything, no one is above them.

Jagdeep Dhankhar said these things during a program organized at Delhi University on Tuesday. During this, he also retaliated to the criticism of his previous attacks on the Supreme Court and said that every word spoken by a constitutional official (about himself) is guided by the highest national interest. He said that the MPs have the full right to decide what the constitution will be like and what amendments are to be made in it. There is no one above them. This statement of the Vice President has come at a time when a section is also criticizing his comments made about the Supreme Court. The Vice President said that in democracy, the Parliament is supreme. The statement of every person sitting on a constitutional post is in the interest of the nation. Elected representatives decide what the constitution will be like. There can be no other authority above them.

The unwarranted attacks on the Supreme Court in public included criticism for contradictory statements in two separate landmark judgements about the Preamble of the Constitution - the IC Golaknath case of 1967 and the Kesavananda Bharati case of 1973. Dhankhar also questioned the role of the court during the Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. He said that in one case the Supreme Court said the Preamble is not part of the Constitution. In the other case the SC said it is part of the Constitution. But there should be no doubt about the Constitution. The elected representatives will be the final masters of the Constitution. There can be no authority above them.