Ex-Top Court Judge Takes Swipe At PM's Adviser Over Viksit Bharat Remark

Every citizen has the right to offer constructive criticism of the judiciary but must establish that orders passed by courts have interfered with development work and are in violation of the Constitution, former Supreme Court judge Justice Abhay S Oka has said. 

His remarks came days after Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council member Sanjeev Sanyal courted controversy through his statement that the judiciary is the "single biggest hurdle" to India becoming a developed nation. 

"This learned man should have given instances of those judicial orders which, according to him, obstructed and hindered the Viksit Bharat," Justice Oka said, in an apparent reference to Sanyal.

"He should have given particulars of those orders. ⁠If he had, his criticism would have become constructive criticism, which would be most welcome. Every citizen of India has the right to offer constructive criticism of the judiciary and orders of the judiciary. And at any cost, we must support that right," he added. 

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He was speaking at the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) lecture series on the topic 'Clean Air, Climate Justice, and We - Together for a Sustainable Future' on Wednesday. 

Justice Oka said one can criticise judicial orders, "provided somebody establishes that these are the orders which violated the constitution and did not allow development work within the framework of the Constitution."

While speaking at the Nyaya Nirmaan 2025 conference last month, Sanyal said: "We effectively have somewhere between 20-25 years to become Viksit Bharat...but the judicial system in particular, is now, in my view, the single biggest hurdle to becoming Viksit Bharat and growing rapidly." 

Besides, the PMO official also criticised long vacations in higher courts and criticised the use of words like "prayer" and "My Lord" in the legal parlance. 

Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President and Senior Advocate Vikas Singh rejected Sanyal's comment as "irresponsible" and "made in bad taste". Such observations betray a lack of understanding of how courts function, he asserted. 

"Anybody making a comment on the vacations of the higher court is completely lacking in understanding of how these higher courts function. These vacations are not meant to be a period when you do nothing and waste court time. To understand the concept of vacation in the higher court, you should understand the kind of work that a busy lawyer or a judge does in normal times," Singh said.

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