Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said that the Judiciary should not get into activism, rather it should draw its own limits. Replying to questions from journalists at the Indian Women Press Corps, Jaitley said the Judiciary should not take decisions which fall in the domain of the Executive, but at the same time he asserted that the independence of the Judiciary is extremely important and that is rightly asserted by it.
However, Jaitley also stressed that activism has to be blended with restraint and there cannot be a compromise with other aspects of the basic structure in the name of independence of the Judiciary.
His statement came against the backdrop of a few orders passed by the Supreme Court recently which the Government believes was encroachment into the legislative’s turf.
“Judicial review is the legitimate domain of the Judiciary, but then the lakshman rekha has to be drawn by all the institutions themselves. lakshman rekha is very vital. Executive decisions are to be taken by the Executive and not the Judiciary,” Jaitley said.
He added there are different kinds of recourses and layers of accountability available when the Executive takes decisions and people have options of seeking changes in the decision taken by it, besides voting out the Government. The courts can also strike down a decision taken by the Executive if it is found to be unconstitutional, but all these options are not available when the court ends up taking Executive decisions, the Minister added.
“Courts cannot substitute the Executive and say I will exercise the Executive’s power. If you do so the three options will not be available, which are there when the Executive takes Executive decisions,” the Minister said.
In this context he referred to protests by many States over the SC’s decision on National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) and asserted that the decision over the manner in which the examination should be held across the country is essentially an Executive matter as it is in policy domain.
“It is the case of some of the States that examination Boards are unequal, their languages are dissimilar. Can those who are dissimilar in language and unequal be placed on the pedestal of quality and asked to give the same examIJ I think this matter is essentially in the Executive’s domain. We now have a Supreme Court judgment. We will have to see how we deal with that particular issue,” he said.
He added that the judiciary and Executive are “on the same page” over maintaining the fairness and integrity of exams at all costs.
Meanwhile, responding to the Opposition’s allegations of dropping terror cases against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and others in Malegaon blasts, Jaitley said the matter should be left to the courts and if anything is wrong or improper, the judiciary will take a view on it.
“These are legal matters which are based on quality of evidence available. These are matters ultimately over which courts will have to take a view. The chargesheet will go to the court. If anything is wrong or improper I am sure courts will take a view,” he said. The Minister at the same time hit back at the Congress, accusing it of using investigation agencies when UPA was in power for “fabricating” chargesheets.
He also denied the charge that BJP-ruled States were revising text books to ignore icons associated with Opposition parties and said the allegation is made whenever the saffron party is power. With Delhi’s AAP Government facing criticism over huge spending on advertisements, the I&B Minister said excessive publicity has become a tool of “political bribery” and underlined the need for tackling the “big menace” of paid news.