Congress accuses PM, team of 'deliberate confrontation' with judiciary

NEW DELHI: Congress today latched on to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's attack on courts to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team accusing them of "deliberate confrontation" with the judiciary.

Noting that the Congress is concerned over the "confrontationist path", party's senior spokesman Anand Sharma wanted "motormouth" ministers to be "reined in", insisting that conflict with judiciary was "not healthy" for the system laid down by the Constitution.

At the AICC briefing, Sharma accused the Prime Minister of being "patronising" to the chief justice and judges. "Undermining the judiciary is not a happy thing in a democracy," he said, adding Modi should have responded when Chief Justice T S Thakur broke down during a recent function over the issue of shortage of judges.

"Telling them which petition to entertain is not the job of PM. In a constitutional democracy, there is a clear demarcation of responsibility of all three organs," he said.

Besides, Sharma attacked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for targeting the judiciary through his "tyranny of the unelected" remarks and wondered whether judges have to run for elections.

He claimed that future appointments in courts are being delayed despite a huge shortage of judges and high pendency of cases because government is "undermining" judicial system.

He also claimed that the government is "angry" because the proposal to have a National Judicial Appointments Commission for judicial appointments was rejected by the apex court.

Taking a jibe at Parrikar, Sharma said the minister "who does not understand Constitution, is busy giving advice to courts".

Yesterday, Parrikar had made some critical comments at the judiciary claiming some of its directions are "senseless".

"I was reading report about Mercedes Benz company. They have stopped the investment in India because they say the decisions of the court are beyond the limit of understanding," Parrikar had said.

"(They say) we don't understand the logic of banning diesel vehicle. We understand that you can ban diesel vehicle which is polluting but what is the point in banning a diesel vehicle which may not pollute or less polluting than the petrol vehicle," he had said.