Congress attacks Centre for SG’s ‘prophets of doom’ statement in SC

A day after Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court that there were a handful of people -- "prophets of doom" -- who were always sceptical about everything, the Congress on Friday questioned the apex court's silence and alleged that the government was autocratic in its functioning.

Randeep Surjewala, Congress chief spokesperson, said, "Modi Govt's 'New Definitions' in SC - 1) 'Some High Courts are running a parallel Govt' 2) Those criticising the govt are 'prophets of doom' 3) Cites instance of a journalist as 'vulture'."

"A prelude to complete 'Autocracy & Abdication of Constitution'!" added Surjewala in his tweet.

The Congress leader also questioned the transfer of the bench in the Gujarat High Court. "No wonder the High Court Bench holding Gujarat Govt accountable for abdication of duty & turning the hospital into a 'dungeon' is suddenly changed. Can there be a greater 'travesty of justice'?" Surjewala said.

"Why is SC silent on such rank subversion of justice?" he asked.

Kapil Sibal also lashed out on the SG and tweeted, "Sad but true. A law officer in the Supreme Court dealing with the plight of migrants epitomised by the images in the public domain said: Journalists are vultures and High Courts are running parallel governments. This is politics not law!"

Referring to the activists spreading negativity on the measures taken by the Centre to provide relief to migrant workers during lockdown, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court on Thursday that "there were a handful of people -- 'prophets of doom' -- who are always sceptical about everything".

Mehta submitted before a bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, S.K. Kaul and M.R. Shah that these people have been squabbling on social media, have been giving interviews, and writing articles against every institution and have not even acknowledged the humongous efforts made by the government.

Mehta said this has become a trend and the court, as an institution, has to prevent its spread. He added that the trend is that a handful of people give "certificates" to judges of neutrality only if judges abuse the Executive.

He submitted that none of these "prophets of doom" have shown any courtesy to the nation during the pandemic. "The government and ministers are working overnight to see that there is the minimum spread of the virus. All these armchair intellectuals and so-called public spirited people have done nothing to contribute", Mehta told the Supreme Court.