Two days after his government decided to seek vacation of the Supreme Court stay on implementation of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in higher education institutions, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today advised the judiciary to exercise caution because “the dividing line between judicial activism and judicial over-reach is a thin one”.“Each one of the organs (the judiciary, executive and legislature) have their constitutionally assigned roles and responsibilities, and these must be discharged in all honesty. Each organ must respect the roles and functions of the other. Powers accorded to each organ must be exercised cautiously,” Singh told a conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts at Vigyan Bhavan.“Compelling action by authorities of the states through the power of mandamus is an inherent power vested in the judiciary. However, substituting mandamus with a takeover of the functions of another organ may, at times, become a case of over-reach. these are all delicate issues which need to be addressed cautiously.”“All organs, including the judiciary, must ensure that the dividing lines between them are not breached. This makes for harmonious functioning,” he said.The Prime Minister’s comments on judicial over-reach virtually echoed what ex-CJI Justice J S Verma, considered the face of judicial activism, had cautioned courts against in his lecture at the Rani Durgavati Vishwavidyalaya in Jabalpur on March 24 (for full text, visit expressindia.com). Justice Verma had urged courts to discriminate between what is “legitimate” and what is “illegitimate” judicial intervention. And Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, arguing for an acknowledgement of the crucial role of the legislature, also didn’t mince words last week when he said: “I will be failing in my duty if I do not point out that there has been an encroachment in the legislative arena, which Constitution specifically and unambiguously provides.”In his inaugural address at the conference today, the PM said: “The three wings have well-defined roles and functions under our Constitution. However, all the wings have a common goal which is the fulfilment of the hopes of our founding fathers as spelt out so clearly in our Constitution.”In the context of judiciary, Singh said, “the primary obligation is to enforce the rule of law, uphold the Constitution and enforce the discharge of obligations by any authority of the State. This confers enormous powers on the judiciary — but at the same time enormous responsibility — in the exercise of these powers.”Apart from the question of judicial overreach, the PM also took on the issue of Public Interest Litigations (PILs), saying: “PILs have great utility in initiating corrective action. At the same time, PILs cannot become vehicles for settling political or other scores. We need standards and benchmarks for screening PILs so that only genuine PILs with a justiciable cause of action based on judicially manageable standards are taken up. This will also ensure consistency in judicial pronouncements. the SC could take the lead in framing rules in this regard.”
