Former advocate-general K Ramakrishna Reddy said the Congress leaders' plan to meet CJI Surya Kant on Monday would have set a bad precedent. He noted, "The courts are adjudicatory bodies functioning within the parameters of the law." He argued that political parties should not approach the judiciary with such memoranda.
HYDERABAD: Former advocate-general of Telangana and senior advocate K Ramakrishna Reddy has said that the proposed meeting of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi with Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Monday to raise concerns over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls would have set a bad precedent.
Reacting to the Congress leaders' request for an appointment with the CJI, he questioned the propriety of political parties approaching the head of the judiciary through such meetings, particularly when related matters were pending before the Supreme Court.
Speaking to TNIE before the CJI declined to meet the Congress leaders, he said: "The courts are adjudicatory bodies functioning within the parameters of the law and the Constitution. They are not administrative authorities meant to receive memoranda from political parties on issues concerning the administration."
Ramakrishna Reddy said he was unaware of any specific constitutional provision allowing political parties to meet the CJI to submit representations of this nature, adding that such a practice had not occurred in the past. He argued that meetings of this kind did not form part of the prescribed functions of the CJI or the Supreme Court.