PANJIM: Senior Advocate Rafiq Dada on Friday said that what is judicial supremacy versus legislators privileges and parliamentarians privileges is to be debated and are being debated from time to time.
Delivering a talk on Constitution of India at a function organised by the Goa High Court Bar Association at the High Court of Bombay at Goa, senior Adv Dada said that privileges of legislators and parliamentarians remain to be undefined because they are the same like the privileges enjoyed by the House of Commons. It has to be legislated and laid down, he said.
Stating that Constitution of India has cherished values and it is a personal liberty, senior Adv Dada cited various judgments and rulings whether judicial orders affected fundamental rights. Referring to the clash between Uttar Pradesh (UP) legislators and Uttar Pradesh police after the UP Legislative Speaker reprimanded a police officer and sentenced him to undergo seven days imprisonment for publishing pamphlets making allegations against the UP MLAs.
Senior Adv Dada said that on the penultimate day the police officer was released by the Allahabad High Court and it incensed the then UP Speaker, who instigated the Assembly and passed a resolution asking both the Judges to before the Assembly for contempt. All 28 Judges of both – Allahabad and Lucknow High Court granted stay to the Speaker’s order to the extent that the President of India had to intervene and make a reference. This decision, he said is still debated whenever the Speaker’s order is challenged.
He said that in one the matters, the then Judge of High Court of Bombay at Mumbai passed an order asking media not to report the court proceedings and this judicial order was challenged by one of the journalists, who argued that the Court should hold in-camera but cannot ask media not to report proceedings.
Senior Adv Dada said that the then Chief Justice of India held that judicial order cannot offend fundamental rights because judiciary is the custodian of justice and they do it in the interest of justice. This ruling has become a settled law in the country, he added.
He also called upon all the advocates to preserve and enrich the Constitution.
High Court of Bombay at Goa Judge Justice Mahesh Sonak said that Constitution of India is not just lawyers document but it is a vehicle of life and its spirit is the spirit of age very pointlessly professed.
He said that every citizen must make Constitution work. In addition, every citizen must make three organs of the government constituted by Constitution work. For this there must be sufficient focus just not the fundamental rights but also their fundamental duties. He also asked advocates to strive to become good lawyers.
Goa High Court Bar Association President Senior Adv Gilman Coelho introduced the guest speaker. Goa High Court Bar Association General Secretary Gaurish Agni welcomed the gathering.
