DC Edit | V-P\'s attack on Constitution\'s basic structure is regrettable

The incessant firing at the judiciary by the Union government from the shoulders of, first, the Union law minister and, then, the Vice-President of the country, began with the collegium system of appointments in the higher judiciary as the target. In the latest volley, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar has questioned the doctrine of basic structure expounded in the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case verdict of the Supreme Court, calling it a wrong precedent. The 13-member bench had said in its landmark judgment that the Parliament can amend the Constitution, including those parts related to the fundamental rights, but that the “basic structure of the Constitution could not be abrogated even by a constitutional amendment”. He has also repeated his criticism of the Supreme Court striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014, on the plea that it violated the principle of independence of the judiciary which was a basic structure of the Constitution. It cannot be the case that Mr Dhankhar — who distinguished himself as an eminent lawyer before he donned the robe of a full-time politician — is unaware of the legal thought behind the doctrine of basic structure — that the Indian Parliament is a product of the Constitution, and not otherwise, and while the Constitution empowers the Parliament to make laws and even amend the Constitution itself, making fundamental changes to the Constitution will undo the logic of the Constituent Assembly and its product, the Constitution.