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3 min readNew DelhiMay 11, 2026 02:40 AM IST
Chief Justice of India Surya Kant (second from left), Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Attorney General R Venkataramani at the book launch of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta (right), in New Delhi on Sunday. (PTI)
UNION HOME Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said the strength of democracy comes not from confrontation between institutions, but from institutional balance and mutual respect for constitutional propriety.
Speaking at the launch of two books — ‘The Bench, the Bar and the Bizarre’ and ‘The Lawful and Awful’ — authored by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Shah said: “The beauty of our democracy lies in the fact that the Constitution created institutions not to oppose one another, but to maintain balance among themselves.”
He said, “This spirit must be understood in its true sense. The executive takes decisions, while the judiciary conducts a constitutional review of those decisions.”
Shah said the makers of our Constitution drafted it with a spirit that carefully preserved dialogue, propriety and balance. “In 76 years, perhaps very few countries would have advanced while upholding all these constitutional conventions and values,” he said.
“It is a matter of great satisfaction for all of us that, by and large, these conventions have remained intact in our country, and we have further strengthened them through traditions,” the Union Minister said.
He said when he speaks of mutual propriety among institutions, “the spirit of the Constitution itself recognises and upholds it at several places”, and added that everyone “should work together to further strengthen the well-balanced relationship between the executive and the judiciary that has evolved the last 76 years”.
Shah said earlier he had refrained from making any comments on the domain of law, “but I have decided that in the near future I will certainly put forth my views in some forum”.
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“In the 76-year journey of our Constitution, we have deeply strengthened the roots of our democracy… We have certainly reinforced our multi-party democratic parliamentary system, and every change brought about through Parliament and state legislatures in the country since 1947 has been accepted,” said the Home Minister. This, he added, reflects the deep roots of our democracy, in which our Constitution, the people of the country, and our judiciary have made a significant contribution.
Shah said the people of the country have faith that if any injustice is done to them, the Constitution is alive and vigilant. “If their rights are violated, the doors of justice remain open, and whenever the voice of a weak individual or a weaker viewpoint is suppressed, it will certainly be heard in the courts”.
He said it is on the basis of these three fundamental pillars that our democracy has become strong, and broadly speaking, the common citizen’s hope for justice is an important reflection of both social balance and the character of the nation.
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