Parties should eschew discrimination over caste and creed: CJI

“India achieved freedom after along battle, and if the freedom has to be sustained, political parties will have to put discrimination over caste and creed aside and ensure that the country remains united,” said Bhushan Gavai, Chief Justice of India (CJI) quoting Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar on Tuesday.

- Faisal Malik

The CJI said that Ambedkar insisted on the supremacy of the Constitution and believed that the judiciary should be free from the executive's interference.

Gavai was addressing a lecture on ‘The Constitution of India’ in the Vidhan Bhavan, where he was also felicitated by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and others. He was the first CJI felicitated in recent history by the state legislature for being a ‘son of the soil’. All this happened more than a month after Gavai expressed disappointment at the absence of senior state officials at a felicitation event held in his honour in Mumbai soon after his elevation as Chief Justice.

Ambedkar had said that for the country to be strong, the judiciary had to work asa watchdog, said Gavai. “It is the custodian of citizens’ rights under the Constitution and should be free from executive interference,” he said, citing the fact that if a Supreme Court judge had to be removed, a two-thirds majority of both Houses was required.