Institutions, including Election Commission and investigative agencies, perform their duty under tight situations and and an observation can “despirit” them, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has said. He also said that one has to be “extremely conscious” about the country’s institutions which are robust and are working independently under the rule of law with suitable checks and balances.

His remarks at an event in Mumbai on Sunday came against the backdrop of a Supreme Court judge observing on Friday that probe agency must be above board and the Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) should dispel notion of it being a caged parrot. Observing that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the CBI in the excise policy case was unjustified, Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan had slammed the agency, and said it must dispel the notion of being a caged parrot.