Judiciary

Friends, sometimes I wonder whether the Supreme Court of India and its Chief Justice are running our country. Daily you will find some news items where the SC is questioning the Central government about some laws or some actions taken by them. Even when the law/rule/act has been passed by both houses of Parliament,  then the SC is entertaining petitions from the various groups/ politicians from opposition parties for the laws passed by Parliament.

As per my understanding, there are three arms of democratic governance with a clear-cut defined role for each of them as per our constitution, and they are Legislature, Judiciary and Bureaucracy. And sometimes 4^th arm of democracy is considered as Press.

I have noticed that for the last few years, every decision taken by the Parliament has been challenged in the SC, and this has been increasing daily after the NDA government led by PM Narendra Modi came into power at the centre.

Here are a few Petitions entertained by the SC against the decision taken by the Central govt/Parliament etc.

1 Aadhar Case– When the government made Aadhar card linkage compulsory with your PAN card, that time many opposition parties approached the SC on this issue. But the SC case upheld the government’s decision.

2 Triple Talaq– This bill was passed by both houses of Parliament, but still the SC entertained the petition against this bill, which was in the end rejected by the court.

3 Rafale Deal– Opposition parties made many hues and cries against this deal, and the leader of the main opposition party Congress even went on calling “ PM is a thief” etc. The SC went on a fact-finding mission and cleared the government and said there was no kickback/corruption involved in this deal.

4 Demonetisation– Many opposition parties approached the SC against this decision of the Modi govt in 2016, on the pretext that it caused inconvenience to the general public. But their stand was not accepted by the SC.

5 Electronic Voting Machines (EVM)- Opposition parties approached the SC before the 2019 general elections that the elections should be held in the earlier way by voting slips, as EVMs are not reliable. The EC was asked by the SC to show the foolproofness of EVMs. This was done and it was proven that EVMs can not be hacked.

6 General & Service Tax (GST)- after both houses of Parliament passed the GST bill, still opposition parties went to the SC, but in the end, the SC did not accept their plea.

7 Article 370– The bill was introduced in the Parliament in 2019, to abolish Article 370, for the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir by an ordinance, which never came for discussion in the Parliament for voting. The bill was passed by both houses of Parliament. Political parties from J&K and many opposition parties also approached the SC, but in the end, Parliament’s decision was upheld.

There are many other cases which went to the SC, against the decision taken by the Modi govt/Parliament:

• Citizen Amendment Act (CAA)
• Ram Mandir Case
• Pegausus Case
• Gujarat Riots
• Construction of Central Vista/New Parliament House
• Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)
• Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)
• CBI and ED raids
• PM Cares Fund case
• Adani Case

The judgment of the SC in all the above cases went against the petitioners, who had approached the SC against the Modi government’s decisions.

Here in all the above cases, the SC court gave the decisions in favour of the government. My question is if the SC has to look into every decision taken by the Parliament or the government, then I do not understand the utility of the Parliament. In a democracy, people have elected and sent their representatives to the legislative bodies, and if every decision of the legislative body can be questioned by the court of law, then what is the use of elected representatives?

This problem started in a big way with the rise of the BJP in the country and slowly the Congress and other parties of similar thinking started losing their foothold in the electoral politics. With the BJP coming into power at the centre and many states, the so-called pseudo-secular parties could not digest this, and with their earlier clout in the judiciary they started going to the various courts for any decision taken by any state or the centre ruled by the BJP.

As per my knowledge, the work of the SC is to oversee, whether the decisions taken by various state or central governments are within the framework of the Indian Constitution, but if they start entertaining petitions on each and every decision of the governments, then it means they are overstepping their jurisdiction, and secondly the judiciary is indirectly indicating loss of faith in the legislature.

Secondly, the SC has started even accepting petitions against the actions of the central agencies like CBI and ED. And each and every petition is based on the political vendetta of the Modi government. It means when these politicians from the opposition parties are probed for corruption or any other crimes committed by them, then straightway they file the petition in the SC, saying that it is political vendetta. In my opinion, the SC should wait, but here the SC  entertains the bail plea immediately after these culprits get arrested.

Waiting for your views on this blog.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

1^st November 2023