The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Call for restraint in judicial activism

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Sunday, Nov 28, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Call for restraint in judicial activism

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, NOV.27. The former Union Minister, Arun Jaitley, has called for restraint in judicial activism in areas which are the domains of the legislature and the executive.

Delivering the keynote address at the inaugural session of the two-day national council meeting of the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad and later talking to reporters, he said judicial activism had played a positive role in areas such as human rights, abuse of power, eliminating arbitrariness and environmental protection.

The greatest advantage of judicial activism was that it brought a sense of fairness in the executive's functioning. However, the basic tenets of the legal system was the separation of powers of the legislature, executive and the judiciary. "Activism and restraint have to be the two sides of the same coin."

Opinions differ

Mr. Jaitley and the former Supreme Court judge, K. T. Thomas, the main speakers at the inaugural function, expressed divergent views on the need for setting up a National Judicial Commission with regard to appointment of judges.

While the BJP leader favoured the setting up of such a commission, saying that the post-1992 system in which there were "different layers of consultation process" though better than the previous system was not "ideal." In the pre-1992-phase, the executive used to have the "last say" though the judiciary recommended.

However, Mr. Thomas, in his presidential remarks, cautioned Mr. Jaitley not to "proceed in a hurry" and felt that the latest collegium's experiment must be allowed to function for some time before deciding on its merits and demerits.

Changes sought

Stating that the judiciary was the most important wing of democracy, he called for radical changes in the electoral laws to ensure that the electoral system could not be taken advantage by corrupt politicians. He warned that democracy might be confronted with a dangerous situation unless there was "radical improvement" in the electoral system.

Bhupendra Yadav, the general secretary of ABAP, presented a report on the parishad's activities.

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