Constitution Not Under Threat, It Lives In Heart of People: Harish Salve At Republic Summit 2024

Republic Summit 2024: Senior Advocate and former Solicitor General of India Harish Salve at Republic Summit 2024 censured the political parties claiming “Constitution is under threat,” by asserting that it lives in the hearts of people across the country. 

“Whose Constitution is under threat? Constitution of political parties or India? I don't see any threat to the Constitution,” said Senior Advocate Harish Salve at Republic Summit.

Harish Salve on India's Justice System

Asserting that the people need to get the courts in sync with the rest of India, Salve claimed that the country needs a good legal system, mostly a pyramidical one instead of rectangular. 

“We need to get a good legal system into a pyramidical system and not a rectangular system like it is now. Today we have very few very good judges in Delhi, we need a lot more good judges,” said Salve. 

The Former Solicitor General of India added that domain expertise must be brought into the judiciary system of the country. 

“Our Supreme Court of India has to go back to where it was meant to be,” said Salve.

Collegium System Should Be Abolished: Salve 

On being asked if the Collegium system should be scrapped, Harish Salve said, "Show me one country where judges appoint judges?"

Collegium system deals with the appointment and transfer of judges that has evolved through judgments of the SC, and not by an Act of Parliament or by a provision of the Constitution.

The SC collegium is headed by the CJI (Chief Justice of India) and comprises four other senior most judges of the court. Whereas, a High Court collegium is led by the incumbent Chief Justice and two other senior most judges of that court.

Harish Salve: The Legal Titan

Senior advocate Harish Salve hit the headlines when he charged Rs 1 as his fee to represent India during the public hearing in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague. On the other side, Pakistan spent more than Rs 20 crore on lawyers to prove that Jadhav was a spy.

Late Former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had on May 15, 2017 informed that Salve was charging merely Rs 1 to represent India in the Hague.

In the budget document presented in the National Assembly, the Pakistan government had said that it paid Rs 20 crore to UK-based barrister Khawar Qureshi, who is representing the country in the Hague.