Gautam Bhatia's 'argumentation' and 'slant': two observations
This piece is a response to points included in this piece attributed to Gautam Bhatia, dated 2019 Nov 18. This piece is neither a defense nor an endorsement of the subject of Dr. Bhatia's piece, the former chief justice of India (and any of his judgments, positions etc). It is limited to what I perceive as a flaw in Bhatia's argumentation and a call-out of what I see as one of his politico-legal slants.
Observation 1: NPWAPCG (no place where aggrieved people could go) argumentation
Let us take Bhatia seriously, break his argument down, to see how it plays out:
Observation 2: POIRAPT (protection of individual rights as primary task) slant
I would be most obliged to anyone who can show me where in the Constitution "protection of individual rights" has been clearly and unequivocally specified as the "PRIMARY TASK" of the judiciary? My question should not be construed as me undermining the—in my view—extremely important task of "protection of individual rights". My question to Bhatia, actually to anybody, is about the constitutional validity of Bhatia's claim: "PRIMARY TASK". To be further clear, I am not asking to be pointed to either opinions or prior judgments of individual judges in the past. I am asking about the absolute constitutional validity of the suggestion that protection of individual rights is THE PRIMARY TASK of the judiciary and therefore takes precedence over everything else.
Observation 1: NPWAPCG (no place where aggrieved people could go) argumentation
Let us take Bhatia seriously, break his argument down, to see how it plays out:
- The court should not have taken over the Executive's task
- The Executive should have done the task
- and in that process, if the Executive violated rights
- the aggrieved could appeal to: the court!
Observation 2: POIRAPT (protection of individual rights as primary task) slant
I would be most obliged to anyone who can show me where in the Constitution "protection of individual rights" has been clearly and unequivocally specified as the "PRIMARY TASK" of the judiciary? My question should not be construed as me undermining the—in my view—extremely important task of "protection of individual rights". My question to Bhatia, actually to anybody, is about the constitutional validity of Bhatia's claim: "PRIMARY TASK". To be further clear, I am not asking to be pointed to either opinions or prior judgments of individual judges in the past. I am asking about the absolute constitutional validity of the suggestion that protection of individual rights is THE PRIMARY TASK of the judiciary and therefore takes precedence over everything else.
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