Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Sunday rebuffed the criticism that unelected judges should not interfere with law-making. .Such a notion has no legal or constitutional basis because the Constitution has mandated the Supreme Court the power to examine and strike down a law made by the parliament if it does not conform to the constitutional requirement, he said. “According to me, the criticism that unelected judges of constitutional courts should not interfere in the law making by the elected representatives of the people has no legal or constitutional basis. This is because the Constitution has mandated the Supreme Court the power to examine whether law made by the parliament conforms to the constitutional requirement and if not, to strike down such law by exercising the power of judicial review,” he said. .He was speaking at the farewell ceremony organised by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa for former Supreme Court Justice Abhay S Oka..The Constitution has mandated the Supreme Court the power to examine whether law made by the parliament conforms to the constitutional requirement.Justice Ujjal Bhuyan.Justice Bhuyan referred to former Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley’s criticism of the Supreme Court striking down of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act which was slated to replace the Collegium system of appointing judges. Jaitley had said that, unlike judges, Members of Parliament are elected by the people and answerable to them, and therefore, the Supreme Court should not have struck down the will of the people. Justice Bhuyan said that in the NJAC case, the Supreme Court had exercised the power of judicial review which the Constitution has conferred on it. Justice Bhuyan further said that for the judiciary to remain independent, we need bold and courageous judges.“Throughout history, we have had courageous and independent judges, and we will continue to have them. That's how our Constitution survives, that's how our jurisprudence survives, and that's how democracy survives,” he said.
