People's Democracy

Encroachment Of Constitutional Powers Of Parliament

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued the following statement on October 17, 2006

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses surprise at the direction given by the Supreme Court to the government of India on the policy of reservation sought to be implemented for providing 27 per cent reservation to the Other Backward Classes in admission to educational institutions.

It is a basic precept of the Constitution that policy making, subject to the approval of the parliament, is an exclusive prerogative of the executive. Legislation is, however, an exclusive prerogative of the parliament. In a law making process, the government’s role is limited to the introduction of the legislation and once this is done, it becomes a property of the legislature. Its passage and amendment is decided by the parliament. The parliamentary standing committee is a body set-up by the parliament, enjoying its powers and exclusively accountable to the parliament itself, and through it to the sovereign – the people of this country. The government or anybody else has no ownership over the report of the standing committee till it is placed on the table of the House and becomes public.

In the light of this basic feature of this inter-relationship, independence and separation of powers of the executive and the legislature enshrined in the Constitution, the order of the Supreme Court amounts to encroachment on the powers of the parliament. The courts can, however, examine the Constitutional validity of a legislation, but, in no case, can it pre-empt and influence the nature of legislation or policy. (INN)