Judiciary or legislature exercising executive authority not in consonance with democracy: Jagdeep Dhankhar

New Delhi: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday delved into the issue of separation of powers, saying executive governance by the judiciary is jurisdictionally beyond its constitutional mandate.

He urged the intelligentsia and academia to catalyse national discourse to ensure deference to constitutional essence by the three wings --the executive, the judiciary and the legislature.

Speaking at the felicitation ceremony of veteran Congress leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Karan Singh on the completion of 75 years in public life here, he also said the convergence of forces both within and outside inimical to India, and anti-national narratives are matters of deep concern.

The vice president said there is a need for concerted endeavours to influence national mood so as to neutralise these pernicious forces.

Referring to the separation of power, he said executive governance is exclusive to the Executive, as is legislation to legislatures and verdicts to courts. "Exercise of executive authority by either Judiciary or Legislature is not in consonance with democracy and constitutional prescriptions," he said.

Dhankhar underlined that executive governance by the judiciary is jurisprudentially and jurisdictionally beyond constitutional sanctification.

"However, this aspect is engaging the active attention of the people indicating in their perception umpteen such instances. This significant aspect calls for deep reflection," he said urging Singh to take a lead with the intelligentsia and the academia in initiating a debate on the subject.