Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Not in the court room

Not in the court room

Share this article Share this article
published Published on May 11, 2013   modified Modified on May 11, 2013
-The Indian Express


Three decisions by the apex court return the power to make policy to the executive

The Supreme Court's decision on Friday to set aside the Orissa high court order against allocation of an iron ore mine to steel major Posco - it has asked the Centre to examine objections and take a final decision - follows two other major court decisions. Early this month, the court dismissed a PIL challenging the Centre's policy allowing FDI in multibrand retail. And this week, it refused to entertain a petitioner's plea against the Vedanta-Cairn India deal by citing a CAG report indicating presumptive losses to the country. Taken together, these three decisions should help begin to clear the air of anxiety about notional objections setting off institutional blocks to executive policy decisions. The court has restored the balance, returning the power to make policy to the executive realm. It has heeded institutional propriety - specifically, the government's discretion to make policy on the strength of enjoying the confidence of the elected legislature.

Assorted observations by the Supreme Court deserve study. In the FDI case, it said, "This court does not interfere in the policy matter unless the policy is unconstitutional, contrary to statutory provisions or arbitrary or irrational or there is total abuse of power." In the Vedanta case, the court noted the need to understand the risk that necessarily informs most project decisions, and drew a distinction between a mala fide deal and a risky one. Equally, it cautioned against taking the auditor's finding as the final word before it has cleared parliamentary scrutiny. As unexceptionable as these points are, amongst many others emphasised by the court, it is unlikely that they will be enough to inhibit the filing of frivolous objections aimed at stalling policy decisions in future. There is, of course, a limit to the extent courts themselves can go to put in place a standard by which to throw out, if not penalise, frivolous petitions. The task of raising the bar on how policy is debated, weighed and legally challenged lies in the executive and political sphere.

In fact, it is the tentativeness of governments, at the Centre and in the states, and of political spokespersons, in owning policy and articulating it so as to raise popular literacy, that results in the need for evaluation to be done in the judicial sphere. Whether it is because of lack of conviction or simply lazy, risk-averse politics, elected governments are letting the debate on a policy, and potentially its fate, move to the courtroom.


The Indian Express, 11 May, 2013, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/not-in-the-court-room/1114296/


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close