The Hindu : New Delhi News : Speaker for adhering to Constitutional scheme

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Saturday, Aug 26, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Speaker for adhering to Constitutional scheme

Special Correspondent

Somnath Chatterjee delivers the G.V. Mavalankar memorial lecture on `Judiciary and Legislature under the Constitution'

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has said that as the Constitution was the fountainhead of Indian Parliamentary democracy, it was the duty of all concerned to ensure that the constitutional scheme was scrupulously adhered to and that no organ went beyond what had been assigned to it.

"It is the duty of all concerned, including the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary, to ensure that this balance is scrupulously adhered to. And suffice it to say that as the institution that encompassed in its fold the sovereign will of the people, it is the Parliament which enjoys primacy, within the constitutional mandate; after all, the Constitution is the fountain-head of our parliamentary democracy," Mr. Chatterjee said delivering the G.V. Mavalankar memorial lecture on `Judiciary and Legislature under the Constitution', here.

Paying tributes to the memory of Mr. Mavalankar, the Speaker said the nation recalled with reverence and admiration the remarkable contributions that Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar made towards parliamentary traditions and laying the foundations of establishing the framework of a working democracy.

"As the first Speaker of a new-born nation's highest representative body, Mavalankarji's role was not merely that of a moderator and facilitator of its functioning, but of a statesman and an institution-builder. He not only guided the proceedings in the House with rare finesse but also carved out a niche for himself as an outstanding leader and a highly accomplished parliamentary administrator," Mr. Chatterjee said.

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