New Delhi, Jun 11 (TOI): Union minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday cited several instances of judicial appointments during Congress-ruled governments where attempts were made to influence the Supreme Court to argue that the opposition protests over recent controversies were misplaced.

Writing in the context of the Centre’s decision to return the Supreme Court collegium’s recommendation to elevate Uttarakhand high court chief justice K M Joseph to the apex court, Jaitley said it was not out of line with procedure. Congress, he said, had forgotten how it had sought to prevent the SC from making fundamental rights above any dilution through Parliament majorities it enjoyed.

Jaitley referred to an instance during Indira Gandhi’s tenure as PM and said, “An important turn in the judicial appointments history was the decision of the Prime Minister to appoint ideologically committed law ministers so that judicial appointments could be influenced by the social and political philosophy of the judge,” he said.

Citing the famous Kesavananda Bharati case, Jaitley recalled how the government of the day tried to subvert the independence of judiciary and gain power to tweak even the basic tenets of the Constitution with the help of the Parliament.

It was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court that outlined the “basic structure doctrine” of the Constitution, which cannot be tampered with.

Referring to T R Andhyarjuna’s book — The Kesavananda Bharati Case: the Untold Story of Struggle for Supremacy by Supreme Court and Parliament— he recounted how the government tried various “tricks to delay the hearing” so that the then Chief Justice S M Sikri retires and government retains the right to amend the Constitution even with regard to fundamental rights.