Super-legislature

Super-legislature

Subject – Polity

Context – Judiciary should not act as a ‘super-legislature’, says Centre

Concept –

• A “distressed” government has taken a leaf from former United States President Franklin D Roosevelt’s speech to emphasise that the judiciary ought not act as a “super-legislature” by entertaining a challenge to the Tribunal Reforms Act.
• The Centre, in an affidavit in the Supreme Court, said it was “confused” why the judiciary thinks that the law made by Parliament and implemented by the Executive is an attack on judicial independence.
• Some of the provisions of the Act under challenge include the reduction of the tenure of chairpersons and members of key tribunals from five years to four and mandates a minimum age to be 50 for appointment.
  • The new law also said the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister may “preferably” make the appointment within three months of the recommendation by the Search-cum-Selection Committee only one name per vacant post may be recommended with a wait list.
  • The affidavit said each one of these issues is purely one of policy.
• The government said it was the “exclusive right” of the Parliament and the Executive to frame policy and execute it.
• Any reappointment takes place only on the basis of recommendation of the search and selection committee in which the Judiciary is the dominant voice.
• The word ‘preferably’ used in Section 3(7) of the Act was a choice of the Parliament and for the court to object to it would not be conducive to good governance. “The appointments committee has to prioritise the multitude of issues important to the State, thus the need not to have an inflexible three months… Even with pressing internal and external affairs of great importance coming in the way, three months may not be sufficient in some cases,” it justified.
• “Independence of judiciary cannot be used as ground for testing statutes,” the affidavit said.

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