ALAPPUZHA: The recent judgment of the Supreme Court on the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution should not be construed as an order invalidating the schedule, the former Supreme Court judge K.T. Thomas has said.

Inaugurating a discussion on `Judiciary Vs Parliament on Schedule Nine' organised by the Indian Association of Lawyers here on Tuesday, Mr. Thomas said the court only said that those laws included in Schedule Nine after 1973 would be subject to judicial review if they were against the basic features of democracy.

Even earlier, in a case Kesavananda Bharati Vs State of Kerala, the Supreme Court had held that the amendments to Constitution should not violate its basic features, he noted.

Though Parliament was believed to represent the will of the people it should be asked whether it really represented the will of the public as a majority of the winning candidates in elections often got only less than 50 per cent of the total votes, he said.

He remarked that the Supreme Court had become the final court just because litigations had to be stopped at some point.

Mr. Thomas noted that the Supreme Court itself had conceded that it had judged wrong on several occasions. He said that Speakers of Assemblies and Parliament and judges were rendering yeomen service in maintaining equilibrium of powers between the Legislature and the Judiciary.

Attitude of courts

Sebastian Paul, MP, said that the attitude of courts needed to be in tune with the aspirations of times. Though there may be room for opposition regarding inclusion of certain laws in Schedule Nine, there were laws that needed the protection of the schedule, he said.

There should be an even-handed approach in areas where there was possibility of conflict among the judiciary, executive and the legislature, he said.

Court ultimatums

Additional Director-General of Police, Haryana, John V. George noted that court giving ultimatum to officials on administrative matters was leading to a difficult situation.

If the court ordered a district administration to clear traffic congestion in an area in a short period it could create grave difficulties to officials who had to face problems at various levels, he noted.

Mr. George pointed out that delay in getting justice from courts was leading to denial of justice.

IAL State secretary A. Jayasankar said the weakening of the executive and the coalition politics were leading to confrontation between courts and the legislature. Alappuzha District Judge D. Sreevallabhan felicitated Justice Thomas at the function. V. Mohan Das presided.

D. Rajeev, director, school of legal education, Cusat, summed up the discussions. N.P. Kamaladharan welcomed the gathering.

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