NEW DELHI – The Congress on Monday said that the Centre wants to capture the judiciary and that is why a confrontation is going on in an orchestrated manner.

“The VP’s assaults. The Law Minister’s attacks. All this is orchestrated confrontation with the judiciary to intimidate and thereafter capture it totally. The Collegium needs reform. But what this Govt wants is complete subservience – Its remedy is a poison pill for the judiciary,” Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted.

Ramesh was reacting on reports that the government wants its nominee in the collegium, which recommends names for appointment in the higher judiciary.

The Congress had earlier termed Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s recent criticism of the Kesavananda Bharti judgement as an “extraordinary attack” on judiciary.

“In my 18 years as an MP, I’ve never heard anyone criticise the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati judgment of the Supreme Court. In fact, legal luminaries of the BJP like Arun Jaitley hailed it as a milestone. Now, the Chairman of Rajya Sabha says it was wrong. Extraordinary attack on the judiciary!” Ramesh had tweeted.

The reaction came a day after Dhankhar insisted on Parliamentary supremacy.

While addressing the 83rd All India Presiding Officers’ Conference in Jaipur last week, Dhankhar had said that the power of the Parliament to amend the Constitution and deal with legislations is not subject to any other authority, and all constitutional institutions — the judiciary, the executive and the legislature — are required to confine to their respective domains and conform to the highest standard of propriety and decorum. -IANS