"Asking the High Court to re-evaluate our recommendation in this matter has to be deemed improper and contumacious.Asking the CJI to take up the issue of executive interference in judiciary by convening a full court on the judicial side, he said this was necessary in order to ensure that the institution (Supreme Court) remained relevant under the scheme of the Constitution."Let us also not forget the bonhomie between the judiciary and the government in any State sounds the death knell to democracy.Raising the issue of judicial independence, he said, "We, the judges of the Supreme Court of India, are being accused of ceding our independence and our institutional integrity to the Executives incremental encroachment.

Bhats name was later recommended after the probe had given him a clean chit.Justice Chelameswar, who had held the unprecedented January 12 press conference along with three other senior judges questioning the allocation of cases by the CJI, referred to the "unhappy experience" where the Government sat tight over the files even after the Collegium recommended names for appointment in the higher judiciary.In 2016, then Chief Justice of India TS Thakur had asked then High Court chief justice S K Mukherjee to hold an inquiry against Bhat on certain allegations levelled by a subordinate woman judicial officer.

"He said the judiciary may not be "far-off" when the executive would directly communicate with the High Court about the pending cases and ask what orders are to be passed.He said that any correspondence, clarificatory or otherwise, has to be between the executive and the Supreme Court.New Delhi: Senior-most Supreme Court judge, Justice J Chelameswar, has shot off a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) asking him to consider convening a full court to take up the issue of alleged executive interference in judiciary.Referring to Bhats case, he said, "To my mind, I could recollect no instance from the past, of the executive bypassing the Supreme Court, more particularly while its recommendations are pending, to look into the allegations already falsified and conclusively rejected by us.Inconvenient but able judges or judges to be are being bypassed through this route," he claimed."Someone from Bangalore has already beaten us in the race to the bottom.

The apex court judge, who is demitting office on June 22, took serious note of the communication between the Karnataka High Court chief justice and the executive saying, "the role of High Court ceases with its recommendation".We both are mutual watchdogs, so to say, no mutual admirers, much less constitutional cohorts", he said in the letter to the CJI. So much for our independence and preeminence as a distinct State organ".Later, the Collegium had assumed power with regard to judges appointment in higher judiciary. Attempts were always made to treat the Chief Justices as the Departmental Heads in the Secretariat.

Also read: Cong leads efforts to impeach CJI, backed by oppn partiesThe unprecedented letter, copies of which were also sent to 22 other apex court judges, has questioned the probe initiated by Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari against District and Sessions Judge Krishna Bhat at the instance of Union Ministry of Law and Justice, despite his name being recommended for elevation twice by the Collegium.."For some time, our unhappy experience has been that the governments accepting our recommendations is an exception and sitting on them is the norm.Justice Chelameswar, in his letter written on March 21, cautioned that "the bonhomie between the judiciary and the government in any state sounds the death knell to democracy"."The executive is always impatient, and brooks no disobedience even of the judiciary if it can. The Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court is more than willing to do the Executive bidding, behind our back," Justice Chelameswar wrote in his six-page letter.He then referred to an instance from the past when the apex court had taken serious note of direct communication of the then Law Minister with the High Courts on the issue of judges transfer SHRP Weft Feeder which had finally led to the judgement in first judges case in 1981

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At a time when Union finance minister Arun Jaitley is getting ready to present the Union Budget for 2018-19 and the Narendra Modi government is desperately trying to create an impression of "all is well” on the economic front, BJP MP Varun Gandhi has not merely raised the issue of a growing "socio-economic disparity” but also voiced severe criticism of the country’s legislators busy fattening their own purses by relentlessly raising their salaries at the cost of taxpayers."A voluntary exercise such as this would send a positive message across the nation regarding the level of sensitivity we possess as elected representatives,” he wrote in a letter to Ms Mahajan.

The BJP MP said if the MPs voluntary participate in the "movement”, it would reinforce the people’s faith in their elected representatives."In the first Cabinet meeting of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952, the entire Cabinet took a unanimous decision not to avail of their salaries for three months in the light of the economic situation of that time,” said Mr Gandhi.He mentioned in the letter that the number of MPs with assets worth over Rs 1 crore rose sharply from 319 in 2009 to 449 at present. In a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan earlier this week, the MP from Sultanpur, UP, requested her to initiate a "movement” to encourage economically advantaged Lok Sabha members to forego their remuneration for the remaining term of the Lower House.According to a report, the average value of MPs’ assets in the 16th Lok Sabha is Rs 14. Roughly 24 per cent, or 132 Lok Sabha members, have declared assets worth over Rs 10 crores.

He said even in the Rajya Sabha, 96 per cent members are millionaires.61 crores.The remuneration of an MP include a basic salary of Rs 50,000 per month, Rs 45,000 as constituency allowance, among other allowances. "India’s inequality gap is widening further every day.The BJP "young turk” who is believed to be not in the good books of the party leadership, not merely attacks the insensitive attitude of legislators sitting in Parliament but has also evoked the example of the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (who also happens to be his great-grandfather), the BJP’s bugbear, to drive home his argument.7 lakhs per MP per month, he wrote in the letter.

Mr Gandhi also mentioned that in the past decade, the salaries of parliamentarians have increased by 400 per cent, a rise that is "unlikely even Projectile looms in the profit-driven private sector”. Mr Gandhi also suggested creating an independent, statutory body to ascertain the affordability of the move and the need for an increase in fiscal compensation for MPs.Expressing concern over the widening inequality in the country, Mr Gandhi said it was "detrimental” to our democracy. A growing divide is detrimental to our democracy and we, as public representatives, must be seen to be more responsive to the socio-economic realities of our country,” the letter reads. The government spends roughly Rs 2.

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