By inducting Jennifer Monseratte and Chandrakant Kavlekar as Ministers despite serious criminal cases pending against them, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has once again breached the mandate of the Supreme Court. He earlier inducted Mauvin Godinho who stands charge sheeted in the infamous multi-crore Power scam case which was incidentally filed by the then Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar.
In a landmark Judgment the Supreme Court in 2014 advised the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers not to induct to public offices charge sheeted persons facing trial. The Court had observed that criminalization of politics destroyed peoples’ faith in democracy while observing that constitutional morality, good governance and constitutional trust expected good sense not to recommend any person with criminal charges from being appointed to government positions.
Lawmakers must never be or be seen to be law breakers. If lawmakers cannot respect and uphold the very law they legislate either by their words or deeds, how can the masses be expected to respect the lawmakers or the law?
The constant deliberate attempts by the government of Goa to ignore the judgements of the Supreme Court like and induct to public office tainted individuals is unacceptable as it makes a mockery of our precious independent judicial system and our Supreme Court which is the guardian of the Constitution. The actual respect for the Supreme Court is as an institution where the laws and the constitution are pronounced there. The Supreme Court is the ultimate ray of hope for every citizen of India.
In any well-run democracy, the integrity of our legislature should never be compromised by either the institutions or the people that have been elected to serve in them. Inducting people with serious criminal cases pending as Ministers for ulterior motives is a fraud on the many by a few as they arrogantly lose sight of the fact that they are ultimately responsible and accountable to the people of Goa.
