KEVADIA: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said the Supreme Court and high courts had delivered several far-reaching verdicts in furtherance of socio-economic objectives besides making correctional interventions but concerns were raised whether orders on Diwali fireworks, monitoring of investigations and making judicial appointments their preserve meant an intrusion into the domains of the legislature and the executive.
Speaking at the 80th All India Presiding Officers’ Conference in Kevadia, he said there had been debates whether some issues should have been more legitimately left to the other organs of governance.
“For example, Deepavali fireworks, cess on registration and movement of vehicles from NCR through Delhi, banning use of vehicles of certain make after 10 or 15 years, monitoring police investigations, denying the executive any role in the appointment of judges by instituting collegium, invalidating the National Judicial Accountability Commission Act seeking to ensure transparency and accountability are being cited as instances of judicial overreach,” Naidu said.
He said the legislature, the executive and the judiciary were bound to work within their respective domains as defined in the Constitution. “This warrants a spirit of mutual respect, responsibility and restraint. Unfortunately, there have been several instances of crossing the boundaries,” he added.
Presiding over the inaugural session, President Ram Nath Kovind urged lawmakers to ensure civility while participating in legislative proceedings. He said people expected compliance of parliamentary ethics by their elected representatives and they were pained to see use of unparliamentary language in House proceedings.