Continuing his criticism of the judiciary for its “overreach”, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said it must draw its own " Lakshman rekha" as there cannot be a " compromise" with other aspects of the basic structure in the name of independence of the judiciary.
Four days after Jaitley said in Parliament that “ Step by step, brick by brick, the edifice of India’s legislature is being destroyed” due to judicial activism, Jaitley said activism has to be blended with restraint.
“Judicial review is legitimate domain of judiciary but then the Lakshman rekha has to be drawn by all the institutions themselves,” Jaitley said, asserting that “ the executive decisions are to be taken by the executive and not the judiciary”.
Replying to questions during amedia interaction here, Jaitley said there are different kinds of recourse and " layers of accountability" available when the executive takes decisions and people have options of seeking changes in the decision taken by the executive.
Courts can also strike down adecision taken by the executive if it is found to be unconstitutional.
However, all these options are not available when the court ends up taking executive decisions, Jaitley said. “Courts cannot substitute the executive and say I will exercise the executive power. If you do so the three options will not be available, which are there when the executive takes executive decisions,” he said.
Business Standard New Delhi,17th May 2016
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