Govt: Separation of powers equally binding on judiciary

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 22

Close on the heels of the Supreme Court stepping in to clean up Indian cricket and the medical education sector, the government today said in the Lok Sabha that the principle of separation of powers was as binding on the judiciary as on the executive and the legislature.

Parliament is supreme when it comes to lawmaking and the judiciary’s role is to interpret that law, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said during Question Hour after MPs cut across party lines to ask if it was constitutional for the SC to “make laws” pertaining to cricket, medical entrance exam system (NEET) and Medical Council of India.

In response to queries mostly about separation of powers, Prasad reiterated the government’s concerns over the apex court’s December 2015 rejection of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Bill which both the Houses of Parliament had passed with consensus.

“The only reasoning the SC gave to turn down the NJAC Bill was that because the Law Minister is involved in the process of appointment of a judge, the process may not be impartial or so the litigant might feel. However, the PM today is entrusted by the people to be the main player in the appointment of the President, Vice-President, CVC, Chief Election Commissioner. But the PM through the Law Minister cannot be trusted to appoint a fair judge? The Parliament will have to debate this issue some day,” Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who sat through the Question Hour today.

The government even made a categorical statement that it had “minimal” role in the delayed formulation of the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for the appointment of SC and HC judges.

“We assumed power in May 2014. In August 2014, this House passed the NJAC Bill. In November 2014, 50 per cent of the states ratified the Bill. In December 2015, the SC gave a judgment saying the existing collegium system needs to be improved. For one year, the MoP remained pending in which our role was minimal. Now they (SC) have sent a proposal and the government will take a call,” Prasad informed the House.

The Minister’s responses came in the wake of MPs’ concerns around the huge pendency of cases in Indian courts and continuing judges’ vacancies.

Latest government data (as of September 30, 2016) shows 62,106 cases pending in the SC, 40,12,000 in high courts and 2.85 crore in district courts.

Earlier, answering queries from BJP’s Sanjay Jaiswal, TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee, CPM’s Mohd Salim and Congress’ KH Muniyappa about judicial overreach into the legislative domain, Prasad said, “The 13-judge Constitutional Bench in Keshavananda Bharti case had made it clear that separation of powers is part of the basic structure of the Constitution.”