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Showing contexts for: basic structure constitution in In Re: Shri Sham Lal vs Unknown on 18 January, 1978Matching Fragments
10. Neither the validity of the Presidential Order nor of the Constitutional amendment, by which this Court's very jurisdiction to entertain the question of validity of the Presidential Order "on any ground" was declared to be non-existent, was questioned by any counsel before this Court either for conflict with the basic structure of the Constitution or for mala fides of any sort (legal or factual). Yet, without questioning the validity of the Presidential Order or even the Constitutional amendment barring judicial scrutiny of grounds of its validity, this Court was expected, to judge from the tenor of the attacks made upon the judgment of this Court, without indicating where the Court's reasoning went wrong, to hold that the emergency itself was unconstitutional. Even Mr. Justice Khanna did not hold that because no materials were placed and no grounds urged before the Court to enable it to hold that the declaration of Emergency was itself invalid. The obvious suggestion and threat held out to Judges of the Court is that they will be maligned and punished if they could not in future so decide cases as to protect the interests or voice the opinions of whatever political or other sort of group those who have signed the document mentioned in the newspaper may represent. No more insidious a danger to judicial independence could exist. It implies nothing more nor less than blackmail to demoralise upright Judges. People who could indulge in it certainly do not represent those who say that law, as found in the Constitution, must be always declared by Judges fearlessly and honestly. I cannot conceive of a grosser or clearer case of contempt of Court than the implications of this document, if we were to think about them, would constitute.