Supreme Court of India
Politicians came in for some rare praise from the Supreme Court on Tuesday with Justice J Chelameswar observing that many of them invest a lifetime before they become people’s representatives and that he did not find anything “morally or legally wrong” in extending minimum facilities to these representatives that would enable them to be in touch with the people.
“For securing that tenure, quite a lot of them have dedicated their whole life…Their entire lifetime is there”, Justice Chelameswar said, adding “there may be a few rotten apples.” He was heading a two-judge bench hearing a petition by NGO Lok Prahari against granting pension to ex-MPs and their kin.
The judge was responding to advocate Kamini Jaiswal’s plea that originally, there was only a provision for allowances for members of the Constituent Assembly for their contribution while drafting the Constitution and wondered how the element of pensions came about.
Justice S K Kaul, who was also on the bench, said while people’s representatives who were economically well-off could take care of themselves, there may also be members from weaker sections who might need support. “It’s not only a special allowance, but also to survive in a dignified manner and to carry out their functions”, Justice Kaul said.
Justice Chelameswar said, “They (ex-MPs) continue to be doing what they do and carry out their activities. I don’t find anything legally or morally wrong in giving them a pass to move around”. He said, “It’s good if all legislators, judges etc are sticklers for rules, but is it so? It’s not an ideal state of affairs.”
When Jaiswal referred to the issue of manifold rise in the wealth of many people’s representatives after their election, the bench said that was a separate issue and had already been dealt with by the court in the past.
Jaiswal, who appeared for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms questioned why people should continue to fund their ex-representatives. She added that a lot of money was being spent for this. Justice Chelameswar sought to know if there was any data on the money actually spent. Jaiswal replied that she would produce the same in a day.
For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App
