Responding to criticism of his comments, Mr Dhankhar declared "every word spoken by a constitutional functionary (referring to himself) is guided by supreme national interest".
New Delhi:Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has again questioned the remit of the Supreme Court within the framework of the government as laid out in the Constitution, declaring the "Parliament (i.e., the Legislative) is supreme" and that "elected representatives (i.e., the Members of Parliament) are the 'ultimate masters' of what the Constitution will be... there cannot be any authority above them".
Mr Dhankhar, at a Delhi University event Tuesday morning, also hit back at criticism of earlier attacks, declaring "every word spoken by a constitutional functionary is guided by supreme national interest".
The unseemly public attacks on the Supreme Court included criticism for contradictory statements, in two separate landmark verdicts, about the Preamble of the Constitution - the 1967 IC Golaknath case and the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case. Mr Dhankhar also questioning the court's role during the Emergency imposed by ex-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975.
"In one case, the Supreme Court says the Preamble is not part of the Constitution... in another it says it is... but let there be no doubt about the Constitution. Elected representatives will be ultimate masters of what the Constitution will be. There cannot be any authority above them..."
The Supreme Court, he said, had also overturned verdicts by nine High Courts on the imposition of Emergency, which he called "the darkest phase in democratic history", and the suspension of fundamental rights. "I say 'darkest' because the highest court in the land ignored the verdict of nine High Courts... that democracy's fundamental rights could never be put on hold..."
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