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Judges should not govern the nation, cautions CJI
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, August 25
Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia today cautioned judges against venturing into areas of policy-making and governance as unlike lawmakers, judiciary was not accountable to people.

Delivering a lecture on “Jurisprudence of Constitutional Structure” at the India International Centre here, the CJI also advised the judiciary not to pass orders that are difficult to be enforced through court monitoring.

Judges ought to strictly go by Constitutional principles which had clearly demarcated separation of powers among the judiciary, the legislature and the executive, Kapadia clarified.

“Judges should not govern this country. We need to go by the strict principle: Whenever we lay down a law, it should not interfere with governance. We are not accountable to people. Objectivity and certainty enshrined in the basic principles of the Constitution have to be given weightage,” he said.

Suggesting that the judiciary should apply the “enforceability test” to all its proposed orders, the CJI wondered what would happen if the executive refused to comply with the court directives.

He cited a recent Supreme Court verdict on the midnight police crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his supporters at the Ramlila Maidan here. While passing strictures against the police for its action against the sleeping supporters, the SC Bench had ruled that the right to sleep was a fundamental right.

Pointing out that the SC had already declared environmental protection and right to dignity as fundamental rights of people, he said sleep had now become another fundamental right. “Where are we going? It is not a criticism. Is it capable of being enforced? When you expand the right, the judge must explore the enforceability.”