On Friday, EX-CJI Ranjan Gogoi said that the Supreme Court's handling of the Covid-19 related crisis can not be compared with its role during the Emergency.
Former CJI Ranjan Gogoi, who is now a Member of Parliament from Rajya Sabha, added that the role of the judiciary in a crisis situation is of a "course corrector & as an evaluator with constitutional ethos as the guiding norms."
Justice Gogoi was addressing a webinar organised by the School of Law, Bennett University on “Covid-19: Constitutional & Legal Challenges.”
Talking on the topic of `Cooperative Federalism: Role of Judiciary: A dynamic concept to manage & adjudicate disputes during COVID Crisis' Mr Gogoi noted that attributing "ill will to the institution as a whole or individual judges only serves to adversely weaken the institution" perhaps referring to detractors of the Supreme Court who have criticised it for reacting late to the plight of migrants & other concerns relating to the lockdown.
Citing the recent heavy criticism of the judiciary for its approach & silence the Former CJI said that "Its silence or failure to act has been compared to the role of the institution during the Emergency. In my view the two situations are incomparable. What happened during the emergency are constitutional perversions conceived by the human mind. Though legal options were clearly available to undo the wrong, we humans faltered. The current situation is beyond human comprehension. Never before have we experienced anything even remotely similar. The scenario offers only hindsight views."
Turning to the current concern on what is a valid criticism of the judiciary, Mr Gogoi said well-founded criticism of Judicial performance is indeed crucial for the vitality of an institution. But "hyperboles masquerading as honest criticism may benefit a few in the short run, in the long run it would for sure adversely affect the nation as a whole."
The Ex-CJI underlined the need to understand that "there are limits to judicial power exercised by courts, in particular the Supreme Court of India" adding that "Court has the mandate to protect basic rights & uphold the Constitution but it is also bestowed with a wisdom to step back from what are essentially problems of administrative nature, requiring consultations."
Referring to the handling of the Covid-19 crisis & litigation surrounding it in the Supreme Court, Mr Gogoi stressed that the administration must be given adequate time to discharge their obligations under the Constitution & the laws.
"The Court, therefore, ought not to act as the first recourse to settle all stresses & strains i.e. even before the executive & the administrative had the opportunity to address such concerns," he observed, explaining that unlike in the past when SC had the time to think & deliberate, to take on board varying viewpoints & engage with vast amounts of data to decide its response, "the pandemic situation takes away this luxury" as in addition to long term response, "short term responses are necessary which are often crafted on the go."
So, "while unprecedented times may call for unprecedented responses," Justice Gogoi said the duty of the Court is also to continually try & work with the administration to tackle the fallout of crisis situations without compromising basic rights & liberties of the citizens.
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