Underlining the role of public institutions that are enshrined in the Constitution, Supreme Court judge Justice P S Narasimha on Sunday said that “fourth branch institutions (such as the EC, CAG, Union and State Public Service Commissions, and National Commissions for SCs, STs, and OBCs) should not be retirement homes for civil servants and judges”.
“Domain expertise and capacity building are constant casualties in institutional structure. Diversity in composition is also overlooked in many cases. It is important to realise fourth branch institutions can’t be retirement homes for civil servants and judges,” he said.
Justice Narasimha was delivering the second edition of the Justice ES Venkataramiah Centennial Memorial Lecture organised by National Law School of India University in Bengaluru.
Speaking on the significance of the Election Commission, Justice Narasimha said the framers of the Constitution deliberately ensured that elections were conducted by a body that was completely “outside the Executive”.
“In retrospect, we can conceive the disasters if this had not been done. I am amazed by the foresight of our Constitution makers to enable the appointment of such a number of Election Commissioners, over and above the Chief Election Commissioner, to constitute the Commission,” he said.
Former CJI ES Venkataramiah’s daughter and Supreme Court judge Justice B V Nagarathna also spoke at the event. She recalled several judgments of her father in landmark cases, including the Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) (P) Ltd. v. Union of India, on press freedom.
“As long as the Court sits, newspapermen need not have the fear of their freedom being curtailed by unconstitutional means,” Justice Venkataramiah had said in the ruling.
“After his retirement, Justice ESV was not keen on sinecures and spent his time being associated with various institutions. NLS was closest to his heart where he enjoyed teaching and interacting with bright young minds. He taught at NLS till his passing,” she said.
Supreme Court Justice Arvind Kumar, Karnataka High Court Chief Justice N V Anjaria, former Punjab and Haryana HC Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal were among the other judges present at the event.
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