Agartala, March 23 : The Tripura Bar Council on Thursday condemned the ‘anti-India’ remarks reportedly made by Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju against retired judges and claimed that it was an attempt of the government to interfere in the judiciary.
Veteran lawyer and President of the Tripura Bar Council, Purushottam Ray Barman, said that the remarks made by Rijiju is derogatory where he termed some retired judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts as anti-Indian.
On March 18 in a conclave, Rijiju had claimed that a few retired judges and some activists who are “part of the anti-India gang” are trying to make the Indian judiciary play the role of the opposition party. The Union Minister reportedly warned that “those working against the country will have to pay a price”.
While talking to the media, Ray Barman said that the Centre is trying to pressurise the judiciary by restricting the former judges to talk against the government’s decisions. It is like a threat to judges who declined to bow down to the government, he said adding that the Central government is making a dictatorial rule across the nation.
“The Centre is trying to capture all democratic institutions including the Indian judiciary. The government wants the Supreme Court and the entire judiciary to be under the thumb of it, the proof of which has become clear in the recent speech of the Vice-President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankhar,” the Bar Council President said.
Ray Barman also has written to the Supreme Court Chief Justice D.Y Chandrachud and other members of the collegium requesting to appoint a permanent Chief Justice of Tripura High Court and to fill up vacant posts of judges of the High Court.
