SN VERMA

Judicial independence is a constitutional principle, Justice Kaul. It ill behoves a retired Supreme Court judge to assert that he was an independent judge in his memoirs; that verdict ought to be left for posterity to decide, based on his judgements. Unless the judge is riven with doubts about his independence! Most certainly, anecdotal evidence about wrangling in the collegium are an extremely poor foundation for self-assertions about one's 'independence' as a judge. The timing of the release of Justice Kaul’s memoirs are as ominous as it’s content. It comes on the eve of a Supreme Court hearing and decision on the issue of alleged dissensions within the ECI and the legality of some measures introduced by it. Now let's dissect what's happening: the cockroaches are intent on pressuring the judiciary as the SIR process has weeded out bogus voters which has clearly raised the hackles of the entire unhinged Left/radical Islamists combine (that also includes the INC and some I.N.D.I. allies). On the heels of the eyebrow raising visit of Justice Kaul to Saurav Das’ Diwali party last year followed a scathing personal attack on Justice Suryakant around the time he became CJI in November of that year in one of the combine’s favourite mouthpieces - Caravan. The article was a republication of a 2019 article in the magazine published when CJI. Suryakant was elevated to the Supreme Court that year. Along with his proclaimed fierce independence while serving on the Bench - a claim which needs more analysis than his own self-serving assertion; and his denigration of former CJI Chandrachud as too deferential to the executive is a clarion call to sitting judges to oppose the executive if they wanted to earn the latter’s respect. In the light of his unexplained association with Saurav Das - the vaunted cockroach of the anti-SIR & anti-CEC agitation - the timing and the publicised thrust of his memoirs raise a grave question. ▶ Is he calling upon members of the judiciary to decide the validity of SIR , the related issue of CEC internal divisions and the legality of its processes against the executive and in favour of the protesting anarchists? ▶ Is a former Supreme Court judge using his considerable heft to influence the direction of a most important pending verdict of the Apex Court?