We need to salute and admire the present Chief Justice of India for his frank and candid remarks, made at an event organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association to celebrate 75 years of Independence. The remarks hold significance particularly when most of the 20 Bills cleared in the just concluded monsoon session of parliament were passed only with a voice vote and without any debate.
Justice Ramana said that in the past, parliamentarians and legislators would discuss and debate on Bills in both the Houses of Parliament and in various State assemblies, which helped the courts to comprehend better the intent and object of the laws. The CJI said, “Now, (it is) a sorry state of affairs… there is no clarity regarding the laws.” The country’s apex judge said that this is a consequence of the absence of intellectuals and visionaries from houses of parliament and assemblies. We have seen during the independence struggle, that it was led by lawyers. You take any national level leader, freedom fighter – from Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Nehru, Babu Rajendra Prasad, all were from the legal community, legal luminaries. They had not only sacrificed their profession but also sacrificed their properties, everything even their family. CJI further remarked: – that this is what happens if intellectuals and visionaries like lawyers are not there in the houses.
It is time (for) the legal community to lead, to participate actively in social life and public life. Don’t confine yourself only to your profession, earning money and living comfortably. Please think over and we must also actively participate in public life, do good service. I hope and expect good days will come to the country and you will contribute your knowledge, your wisdom, your experience, to this country and people will feel happy. The country’s top judge of the SC said that laws passed now suffer from a lack of clarity, which is creating a lot of litigation, and loss to the government as well as inconvenience to the public.
Many of the MLAs & MPs are uneducated and even have criminal records and are known to be corrupt. They have one agenda, to get elected by any means fair or unfair. The primary duty of the Member of Legislative Assembly is to make good laws and uphold the rule of law. On the contrary they come up with laws under the garb of social legislation to legalise illegalities including trespass and illegal construction on someone else’s land, case in point here is the ‘Bhumiputra Bill’ which was circulated and steam-rolled the same day without debate. What was the opposition doing for such an important bill? On government’s own admission thousands of illegal constructions have come up only about 20 per cent have got house numbers. Illegality has become the norm and legality has become the exception.
The lawmakers profess at the top of their voices that they respect the judiciary and that the law will take its own course, however they cunningly and unabashedly come out with legislation barring judicial review knowing fully well that judicial review cannot be precluded. Laws that are patently unconstitutional can come under judicial scrutiny and are routinely struck down. The ‘Bhumiputra Bill’ deserves to be shredded and consigned to the waste paper basket.
