‘No one can interfere in legislature’s powers’

Observing that separation of powers was the cornerstone of democracy, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today said no authority could interfere with the legislature’s absolute constitutional right to make laws and enforce executive accountability.

The constitutional mandate to the judiciary was to interpret the laws and not to make them or to lay down general norms of behaviour for the government, Chatterjee said in his opening address to the All-India Conference of Presiding Officers and Secretaries of Legislative Bodies here.

Alluding to recurring instances of judiciary-legislature tensions, he said the judiciary could not exercise its power of judicial review to lay down new policies or to direct actions to be taken up by the executive.

He said it was time to introspect if the organs of democracy were discharging their duties and functions as mandated.