Guess Which Former CJI Is India’s “New Muhammed Bin Tughlaq”?

Former Supreme Court (SC) judge, Markandey Katju, is not a person to mince words. He is notorious for his dramatic interventions on everything under the sun. He has called former chief justice RM Lodha ‘the new Muhammed bin Tughlaq’ in his Facebook post.

Not without some logic, though.

Last year, the SC appointed a panel headed by Lodha to suggest ways to reform the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). After it submitted its report detailing how the cricket body should be run, BCCI appointed Katju to interact with the panel. Katju termed the panel’s ruling “unconstitutional and illegal” and advised BCCI to file a review petition before a larger bench of the apex court, and to not meet with the Lodha Committee.

But that is old news. So what riled up Katju today?

His Facebook post mentions the SC order appointing the Lodha Committe to oversee the functioning of the Medical Council of India (MCI) which reads as follows:

Katju says that the MCI was constituted as a statutory body by an act of parliament which doesn’t allow the SC or any committee appointed by it to issue orders to it on how to run itself. But the SC has amended the MCI Act through a judicial order.

Katju points out that various SC benches have themselves ruled that judges cannot legislate. But, he says, ‘precedents are often ignored by some judges who, lacking all self restraint, think that just because they are SC judges and there is no one above them to correct their errors they can behave like emperors and issue any fatwa or firman even if it violates the Constitution or a statute or a binding precedent.’

“Is this a legitimate exercise of judicial power? Does the Supreme Court think it can do whatever it likes, and has no limitations?,” he asks. He has a point.

Also read:

Lodha Panel & The BCCI: Katju Reads Out The Law To The Supreme Court

NITI Aayog Wants To Drag Indian Medical System Into The 21st Century. Here’s How