Don't encroach: CJI tells judiciary, executive

Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha Friday said the people in the executive, the legislature and the judiciary will function within their own assigned sphere without encroaching upon the doing of others.

"I am sure that the people in judiciary, executive and parliament shall have mutual respect for each other and allow them to work unhindered within their own sphere without being influenced by external forces," Chief Justice Lodha said at a function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association to celebrate the nation's 68th Independence Day.

Responding to criticism that the legal fraternity was not consulted before the government rushed with the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: "For me individually and for the government, the independence of judiciary is complete and total."

He said that for him and for the prime minister and ministers Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj who fought for the restoration of democracy during the dark days of Emergency in which mid 1970s, "the sanctity and independence of judiciary is a matter of faith for which we fought".