We're accused of intruding into Parliament's domain, says SC

NEW DELHI: Faced with criticism in some quarters for imposing a three-month limit on President to decide on bills referred to her by governors, Supreme Court on Monday seemed circumspect while dealing with a public interest litgation seeking imposition of President's rule in West Bengal citing attacks on Hindus during protests against the new waqf law.

Arguing for a four-year-old PIL filed by one Ranjana Agnihotri, scheduled for hearing on Tuesday, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain requested a bench of Justices B R Gavai and A G Masih to take on record additional documents on fresh violence against Hindus and their exodus from several areas of the state.


Justice Gavai's immediate reaction was, "You (petitioner) want us to issue a direction to the Union govt to impose President's rule in Bengal? As it is, we (SC) are accused of intruding into the executive and legislative domains."

Vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar had strongly criticised the SC. Two BJP MPs - Nishikant Dubey and Dinesh Sharma - also made harsh allegations against the SC and the CJI, which was cited by an advocate to request the Gavai-led bench to grant permission to file a petition seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the two lawmakers for making false allegations against the CJI and the SC. The bench asked the advocate to follow the rule book and seek attorney general R Venkataramani's consent to file such a plea.