From overreach to usurpation

Limits on exercise of democratically vested powers can only be democratically determined. Judges cannot hold omnibus vetoes.

- DEEKHIT BHATTACHARYA

The opprobrium surrounding the Waqf amendment, the Supreme Court judgment against the Tamil Nadu Governor, its unexpected direction to the President, as also the cash-at-home fiasco of a judge in the Delhi High Court, have generated much debate. The views expressed by the Vice President, who is a constitutional functionary vested with executive, legislative, and judicial powers, and by some MPs on the SC, are wholly appropriate. The judiciary has surely crossed the Lakshman rekha, and entered into the exclusive domain of the legislature—the people's representatives. The court's assumption of legislative and executive powers is demolishing the Constitution's checks and balances. The consequences strike at the very root of democratic governance.