Then, Sir, I do not propose to say much about the question of the judiciary excepting that we need not be led away by mere slogans. The thought seems to be entertained by a large number of people that the executive is always made up of people who want to crush people’s liberties and that the judiciary is there like the knight-errant to rescue the liberties of the public from the clutches of the executive. I think, Sir, that this is a very wrong notion and I am very glad that our Constitution has taken a common-sense view of the affair. We have assured the rights of the judiciary and also provided for powers of the executive. How can you accept this principle that, while the executive is composed of people who are wicked and who are anxious only to crush the liberties of the people, the judiciary consists only of saints who are above all ideas- I will not say-of power but who will not be led away by the same sentiments as those by which the other people are bound to be led away? I know that we have a very difficult task in composing the judiciary. If the members of the bar, when invited to become a Judge, do not consider it as a call to duty which ought not to be disregarded, because a Judge cannot earn on the Bench as much as a practitioner can at the bar, I am afraid we are not likely to secure good judges from the Bar, and the higher posts may have to be filled by promotion from the ranks of the lower judiciary. I am really afraid of the prospect. In my opinion the bench and the bar-I am not speaking in ignorance of the situation, because I have been connected with the legal profession very nearly for 40 years, from 1909-and in my opinion the bench and the bar both are in need of being reminded that they do not cease to be citizens and must be prepared to share the sufferings of the other sections of the people. I agree that it is necessary to have safeguards that the executive does not override the rights of the people. We have agreed to the separation of the executive and the judiciary, but after all the great concern of a young democracy is the security of the State. I am afraid Security is of the very highest value, particularly in a nascent democracy like ours, where new ideas, new principles, notions of new rights and of equality of status are being imbibed by the people none too slowly. So that those people who only raise slogans of civil liberties in danger and the oppression of the executive will do well to remember that they can raise these slogans and they can protect their civil liberties only so long as anarchy is prevented and the executive functions efficiently, justly and properly (Hear, hear).
