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Murder of a minister Naxalite threat |
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Hillary’s comeback
Seeking change in Myanmar
MT’s house
Take CAG’s reports seriously How Indonesia fought terror post-Bali Legal Notes
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Murder of a minister TUESDAY’S assassination of Sri Lankan minister D M Dasanayake, the second this year, would appear to be the beginning of a new spiral of terrorist violence. As shocking as the killing is the fact that, despite the expected upswing in violence after the scrapping of the ceasefire agreement (CFA), the security cover around a minister could be penetrated so easily.
The killing for which the government has blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) comes a week after the assassination of T Maheswaran, a prominent opposition leader who was outspoken in his criticism of Colombo’s human rights violations. That the two politicians belonged to opposing sides in the ongoing ethnic conflict only underscores the heightened risks to all parties in an atmosphere of escalating violence. Regardless of whether the LTTE is responsible for the killing of
Dasanayake, the Tigers would be blamed for the outrage. After all, the LTTE has sworn to hit back, especially after President Mahinda
Rajapaksa, so unwisely, terminated the ceasefire agreement. The LTTE, which has also blamed the “international community” for not recognising the prevalent reality, can be expected to not only continue but also step up terrorist strikes. The more desperate the LTTE becomes, the greater the number and intensity of its attacks. And, the LTTE is desperate as well as under pressure because of Colombo’s offensive against
LTTE-held areas in the north. The government’s military campaign against the LTTE in the northern region can be expected to trigger more such attacks. Sri Lankan MPs, under threat even in the ‘normal’ circumstances of recent years, have been stalked by fears of terrorist violence particularly after the armed conflict took a turn for the worse during the last two years. Security for Sri Lankan MPs ought to have been a priority and should have been beefed up before President Rajapaksa set out to militarily crush the
LTTE. Far from doing that, he has rendered his ministers and MPs even more vulnerable by revoking the CFA and creating a situation that the LTTE can exploit for unleashing a fresh wave of terrorist attacks. |
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Naxalite threat THE divergence between the Centre and the states affected by Maoist violence in tackling the problem is assuming a discordant note and can only serve the cause of the extremists. Maoist, or Naxalite, violence has grown to alarming proportions and the area under their control, far from declining, is expanding. The Maoists have grown not only in strength and spread but also in the sophistication of their strike power. Their ability to strike at will, even in states where they didn’t have a toehold until recently, is a clear warning that unless the issue is addressed in earnest, and without further delay, the situation may get out of hand. State governments, many of which have formed special task forces for the purpose, are clamouring for the deployment of more paramilitary forces to counter the Maoist threat. While the Centre shares the concern of the affected states — Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh — it cannot spare any more battalions of the CRPF, most of which are in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East.
It would be unfortunate if the battle against the Maoists turned into a Centre-state tussle over the deployment of CRPF battalions; and that should not be allowed to happen. The complaint of the Chhattisgarh government that the Centre has not given it enough battalions should be looked into, but it does not absolve it of the responsibility of improving the governance in the state on many fronts where the citizen comes into contact with the administration. The socio-economic problems of the state are serious and the state government’s efforts to tackle these are feeble. Blaming the Centre is not enough. The Centre and the states have to fight the problem in partnership and without partisan politics. The prevailing conditions are the result of bad policies compounded by poor governance. Sooner, rather than later, the root causes and the conditions they have given rise to have to be remedied. |
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Hillary’s comeback THE New Hampshire primary results have proved the pollster wrong. Former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has defeated Mr Barack Obama in this crucial state in the race for the Democratic nomination for the November US presidential election. Her performance after the Iowa defeat is impressive, though the victory margin is only 2 per cent — Mrs Clinton got 39 per cent and Mr Obama 37 per cent. A second defeat in a row would have shattered her confidence. What led to the outcome going in her favour is mainly the female Democrats overwhelmingly siding with the person aspiring to become the first woman President of the US. The poor participation of young Democratcs, believed to take sides with Obama, also helped her. However, Mr Obama’s confidence remains unshaken because 99 per cent voters are yet to express their choice for their party’s presidential nominee. If he has emerged as the top scorer in many state-level opinion polls after the Iowa victory, he is also easily able to touch the right chord with the Democrats, particularly the youngsters, hoping for a change in the White House. His clarity in expressing his ideas is appreciable. He does not mince words when he says that as President he will end the Iraq war and bring the US troops back home, or “we will finish the job against Al-Qaida in Afghanistan”. He also promises to restore the US moral standing in the world. The Republican contest in New Hampshire concluded on the expected lines. Mr McCain has come back to the Republican centrestage by scoring an impressive victory over his nearest challenger, Mr Mitt Romney. Mr Huckabee, who hit the headlines with his victory in Iowa, could get only 11 per cent of the votes. All the contenders for Democratic and Republican nominations claim to remain in the race till “Super Tuesday” — February 5 — when the voters in 24 states will express their preferences. That is the stage when the situation will become clear about the real contenders for occupying the White House. |
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My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill.
— Fiona McLeod |
Seeking change in Myanmar
Shortly after the demonstrations led by Buddhist monks were quelled in Myanmar, the aftershocks were felt in India. South Indians addicted to idly and sambar and their compatriots in the North looking for black dal found that the price of dals in India had escalated. With dal production stagnant in India at around 13-14 million tonnes annually, the country is increasingly dependent on imports of pulses. Myanmar supplies around one million tones — half of India’s total imports.
This dependence on the imports of pulses, vital for the protein content in the diet of the millions of vegetarians in India, is set to grow with Myanmar emerging as the second largest exporter of pulses in the world and its productivity bettering that of India. Interestingly, traders in India had raised the dal prices in September, in anticipation of a cut-off in the supplies from Myanmar — something that did not happen. With the Americans and the British (who had been astonishingly generous in their response to the martial law imposed in October 2007 by General Musharraf), demanding sanctions against Myanmar, the Foreign Ministers of Russia, China and India met at Harbin in China. Speaking at a joint Press conference on October 25, at the end of the meeting, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee said: “We believe the Myanmar authorities should be encouraged to engage in the process of dialogue with the Special Envoy of UN Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari. The initiative he has taken should be encouraged to take it to the logical conclusion, and there should not be any sanctions at this stage”. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said pressures and sanctions would only aggravate the situation in Myanmar. China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi asserted: “We hope the countries concerned will play a helping role instead of applying sanctions and applying pressures”. With Myanmar’s ASEAN neighbours opposing sanctions, encouraging the process of reconciliation being undertaken by Mr Ibrahim Gambari is the only way to proceed with the process of bringing in greater democratic governance in Myanmar. An increasing number of western scholars and diplomats are now coming round to the view that western policies of threatening sanctions have been ineffective and counterproductive. Former British Ambassador to Myanmar Derek Tonkin has debunked recent EU sanctions against gems, jewelry and timber from Myanmar, noting that the EU accounts for only 3 per cent of Myanmar’s exports. Mr Tonkin observes that a substantial portion of the gems, jewelry and jade exports of Myanmar goes to China, its rubies are processed in Thailand and its teak wood is in great demand in Thailand and India. Moreover, the ban on Myanmar textile exports has been nothing but a flea bite as far as the regime is concerned. It has, however, resulted in tens of thousands of Myanmar textile workers being rendered unemployed. Mr Tonkin adds the EU sanctions on Myanmar businesses have only resulted in stifling the emergence of an entrepreneurial class, with the European Parliament being unable to carry out a study of the futility of measures it legislates. Mr Tonkin has ridiculed the much-hyped sanctions against the Sate-run Pagan Airlines in Myanmar, noting that while the airlines may have closed services to Singapore (non-viable in any case), it has opened or will be opening services to South Korea, Kunming, Phnom Penh, Chennai and Dakar. Myanmar’s foreign exchange reserves rose from $250 million a decade ago to over $2 billion presently, thanks in large measure to gas exports to Thailand, facilitated by the collaboration with a French company, TOTAL. What caused the riots led by some Buddhist monks in August/September 2007? The uprisings in 1988 and 2007 in Myanmar were sparked off by economic, and not political, events. The 1988 uprising was caused by a sudden demonetisation of the currency, rendering millions impoverished. The riots of 2007 were triggered by a sudden rise in the petroleum prices from highly subsidised to near-market levels. But less than 5 per cent of Myanmar’s 500,000 monks participated in this manifestation of anger against the regime, triggered by an unimaginative move that made it impossible for ordinary citizens to afford travel by road. Not a single revered senior monk (Sayadaw), however, joined the protests. But, for the first time, the relationship between the regime and monkhood is strained. Recognising the international outrage it had provoked, the military regime agreed to receive Mr Ibrahim Gambari and permit him to meet Aug San Suu Kyi. A senior military official was nominated for talks with Su Kyi, though it is evident that the military rulers intend to move ahead on their “seven-point roadmap” for democracy. Like General Musharraf earlier in Pakistan, Senior General Than Shwe in Myanmar will hold a “referendum” and elections to give the government a façade of democracy. In due course, led by China, Myanmar’s neighbours will see this move as progress in a phased move towards more representative government. In his meeting with Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win on January 2, Dr Manmohan Singh stressed the need for urgently bringing about a national consensus and political reconciliation in Myanmar. He noted that this process had to be broadbased to include all sections of society, including Aung San Suu Kyi and various ethnic groups. India is a member of the 14-member contact group set up by the UN Secretary-General to develop international support for Mr Gambari’s efforts. India should actively pursue its agenda for change in Myanmar with members of the contact group, Myanmar’s ASEAN neighbours and in its trilateral dialogue with China and Russia. At the same time, with China forcefully reiterating its irredentist territorial claims and moving closer, through Bhutan, to the strategic “Chicken’s Neck”, and Bangladesh still providing haven and support to separatist groups like ULFA, New Delhi should move ahead expeditiously in signing the agreement to develop the “Multi-Modal Kaladan Strategic Corridor,” linking India’s landlocked northeastern states to the port of Sittwe in Myanmar. China has supplied Myanmar over $1.6 billion of armaments since 1989. Other arms suppliers include Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Israel and Pakistan. India has been proposing modest supply of arms and helicopters to Myanmar, primarily to facilitate inter-operability between the two armed forces, in dealing with cross-border insurgencies. There should be no compromise on issues of national security, and India should not yield to external pressures on this score. Given the continuing assistance to Indian insurgent groups by Bangladesh and Pakistan, transborder cooperation with Myanmar, which has been helpful in the past, should not be weakened. Efforts to facilitate moves for democratisation in Myanmar have to be combined with realism on issues of national
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MT’s house
BABY was my friend though he was quite senior to me. He was in college when I was in middle school. What brought us together was the love of books. I had a small collection of English novels left behind by my paternal uncle who was a voracious reader. Every time uncle visited us from Calcutta and, later, Waltair, he brought some books. They were all bought from Higginbothams bookshops at various railway stations. Thomas Hardy, Pearl S. Buck and Ernest Hemingway were his favourite authors. I enjoyed playing with the books, sometimes keeping them in a pile and sometimes keeping them in a row. I remember making an index of the books with a proper number for every title. I called it “Sen’s Library”, after my own pet name, again, given by my uncle who seemed to love all the Sens of Calcutta. Even as I took pride in my collection, I regretted my inability to read the books for they were all in English, a “phoren” language. I longed for that day when I would be able to segregate the books so that I could taste some, swallow others and chew and digest some, to follow Bacon’s advice. There were occasions when I determinedly picked up a book to read it from cover to cover even if I did not understand a word. But determination was not a substitute for language and I had to give up the effort after reading one or two pages. Babychayan, as I called my friend in deference to his age, would often borrow books from me. Like a librarian, I would note down the titles against his name in my little register. He was at that time a Malayalam literature student at Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta, where I did my pre-degree. One day I told him about my predicament vis-à-vis my collection. He suggested that I begin reading Malayalam novels before graduating to English books. It made sense. Until then I had not read a novel, except the neenda katha (long story) serialised in the Malayala Manorama weekly we subscribed to. Babychayan lent me a novel on the express condition that I should read it. It was Nalukettu by M.T. Vasudevan Nair, a prescribed text for him. My happiness lasted only till I began to read the book. I found the novel difficult, for I was not familiar with the kind of language MT used. Having grown up in central Travancore in a Syrian Christian family, I was not familiar with the colloquial Malayalam of Malabar, once part of the Madras presidency. Nalukettu is the traditional house of a Nair tharavad. A large house with an open courtyard in the middle into which rooms opened from all four sides is a Nalukettu which I had not yet seen. Because I belonged to a nuclear family, I could also not relate to MT’s Nalukettu in which lived dozens of people, all under one roof. His village was different from my village and I could not even compare our Pampa with the Bharatapuzha on the bank of which MT lived. The book dealt with the matriarchal system among the Nairs which I could not even comprehend. I had also never come across a karanavan (paterfamilias) in real life. My grandfather was no patch on MT’s character. But I loved the affable Appunni who, I thought, resembled me. Yet, I ploughed through, till the last page was turned. The novel opened my eyes to the wondrous world of Malayalam literature. Soon, I was a regular visitor to the panchayat library at Ranni till it could no longer offer me a novel I had not read. Nalukettu, translated into several Indian and foreign languages, is still a bestseller. It has brought both money and fame to MT. Millions are its readers all over the world who feel happy that the book’s Golden Jubilee celebrations begin
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Take CAG’s reports seriously THE Comptroller and Audit General of India (CAG) submitted 21 Audit Reports for the year ended March 2006 on Union Government Departments to the President, which were laid before the Parliament during the last budget session. Additionally, nearly a dozen Commercial Audit Reports of the CAG on Central Government companies and corporations were also tabled in the Parliament during the same session. The Audit Reports contain the result of audit appraisals of the programmes, schemes and activities of Government departments and undertakings focusing on the economy and efficiency of their implementation as well as the extent of achievement of their objectives. The Audit Reports also contain transaction audit paragraphs commenting on significant and high value cases of wasteful, extravagant and infructuous expenditure and loss of Government revenue. Nearly 1500 cases feature in the Audit Reports on Government Departments every year. The Commercial Audit Reports generally comment upon about 200 cases. Under the Rules of Business of the Lok Sabha, the Audit Reports on Government Departments stand automatically remitted to the Parliament’s Committee on Public Accounts for follow up action. The Commercial Audit Reports are remitted to Committee on Public Undertakings. The committees are empowered to call for Government records and summon Government secretaries for their oral submissions. The committees represent the Parliament in miniature and function on non-party lines, and their reports are almost always unanimous. Government is required to respond to the recommendations of the committees, generally within a period of six months, and the committees may make further reports in the light of Government replies. The committees’ reports are tabled in the Parliament. In view of the very large number of Audit Reports that are presented every year and the limited time available for their detailed follow up in the manner aforesaid, the committees have devised a selective approach. The committees undertake detailed follow up action and summon the departmental secretaries for oral evidence in selected cases only. The action on the remaining Audit Reports and paragraphs rests almost entirely with the action taken notes which the Government Departments are required to furnish suo moto to the committees’ secretariat within four months after the Audit Reports are laid before the Parliament. The follow up action by the PAC and the COPU with reference to the Audit Reports represents the culmination of legislative oversight over the public purse since it is the legislature that authorizes the incurring of Government expenditure and levy of taxes in the first instance. The effectiveness of the CAG as an instrument of promoting accountability of the executive and good governance depends entirely on the action taken on audit observations and comments. While the follow up action through the mechanism of self-explanatory notes without direct and oral examination of the departmental secretaries had started as an exception to the general practice, it now seems to have become the rule. Only a very few cases featured in the Audit Reports are currently taken up for detailed oral evidence of the secretaries and report to the Parliament. For example, the PAC discussed only 25 cases during 2006-2007 as against nearly 1500 cases that had featured in the Audit Reports presented during that year. The COPU followed up only three cases against more than 200 cases featured in the Audit Reports on Government companies and corporations. The selective approach inevitably creates an anomalous situation that whereas the CAG’s Audit Reports are in the public domain, very little is known about the action taken by Government Departments on the cases that are not taken up for oral examination by the PAC and the COPU and, consequently, on which there is no report to the Parliament. Although the annual reports of the Ministries are required to give information on the status of action taken on the Audit Reports, the information provided is generally very sketchy and not very meaningful. It is therefore time that it is made mandatory that Government Departments shall table action taken reports on Audit Reports within four months of their presentation to the Parliament. Since the Audit Reports are based on test check of selected cases only, any such action taken report should also disclose the result of Government’s review of similar other cases besides the corrective action taken to remedy the underlying system deficiencies. This will have several advantages.
First, it will ensure that the Government Departments take remedial and corrective action based on the Audit Reports. Second, it would contribute to greater earnestness and rigour in the quality of departmental response to Audit Reports since the Department’s action taken report would require approval and authentication of the Minister before it is presented to the Parliament. Third, it opens up the possibility that an alert and interested member of the Parliament may raise the matter on the floor of the House if the action taken on the Audit Report is inadequate or unsatisfactory. Fourth, the Parliament’s Committee on Papers will chase the Government if the action taken report is not presented in time asking the Government to explain its position. Fifth, it will impart the much-needed transparency to the accountability process and provide assurance to the civil society that Government is alert and responsive to the concerns highlighted in the Audit Reports. Sixth, an indirect spin-off will be an improvement in the quality of Audit Reports. The period of four months for presenting an action taken report, as suggested above, is considered sufficient since the CAG’s Audit Reports are prepared in a highly transparent and participatory manner and ample opportunity is provided to Government Departments to present their side of the case at each stage of processing of audit comments. The above system needs to be implemented in the States as well. Although many of the State PACs/COPUs follow up each and every case included in the Audit Reports by summoning the departmental secretaries, the flip side is the accumulation of arrears. Since the PAC/COPU is in arrears, the Departments do not display any great hurry. Consequently not merely the action in the instant case is unconscionably delayed but also the underlying system and other deficiencies continue to persist. The writer is a former Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Views expressed are personal. |
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How Indonesia fought terror post-Bali IN the fall 2002, the Indonesian island of Bali, once known for its luscious beaches and vibrant Hindu culture, became synonymous with terror and radicalism. After a bombing in Bali’s nightclub district killed more than 200 people, the world suddenly realized what many locals had known for years: Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation on Earth, faced a serious internal threat. Even before the Bali attack, Indonesia had suffered a wave of bombings in winter 2000, and earlier that year someone had bombed the Jakarta Stock Exchange. The al-Qaida affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah was actively recruiting across the archipelago, establishing radical schools to train a young generation of jihadis and planning attacks in Indonesia and throughout the region, including in the Philippines and Thailand. But today, Indonesia has become a far different kind of example. Even as terrorism continues to grow more common in nations from Pakistan to Algeria, Indonesia is heading in the opposite direction, destroying its internal terrorist networks and winning the broader public battle against radicalism. And it has done so not only by cracking heads but by using a softer, innovative plan that employs former jihadis to wean radicals away from terrorism. Indonesia’s successes are striking. Once a threat capable of waging war across Southeast Asia, today Jemaah Islamiyah is a shell of its former self. Indonesian authorities have captured most of its top leaders, including the deputy commander who allegedly helped plan the Bali attacks. Indonesian police have overrun JI’s operational bases, forcing most of its members to live on the run, making it harder for them to plan bombings. Indonesia has suffered no major terrorist attacks in two years, and JI’s ability to raise money and find recruits has been shattered. “There is not much of JI left,” Indonesia terrorism authority Kenneth Conboy told reporters. To be sure, effective police work has made a difference. Backed by U.S. training and high-end surveillance equipment, Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism squad has established an effective internal intelligence network, relying on informants to point the way to terrorist hide-outs and arresting hundreds of JI members. But if they really hoped to reduce the pool of possible new recruits for groups like Jemaah Islamiyah, Indonesian leaders realized they had to win public support for their battle. Otherwise, police could arrest or kill hundreds of militants, and new radicals would just take their place. To win militants’ hearts and minds, Indonesia instituted a program called Deradicalisation. Realizing that hard-core militants will not listen to prominent Muslim moderates, whom they view as soft, as irreligious or as tools of the government, the Deradicalisation initiative employs other militants – former terrorist fighters or trainers. These are men such as Nasir Abas, once a Jemaah Islamiyah leader, who have sworn off most types of violence. Former fighters who agree to help the Deradicalisation program often receive incentives, such as reduced sentences or assistance for their families. The co-opted radicals are sent as advocates into Indonesian prisons, major breeding grounds of militants. In the jails and other sites, they work to convince would-be terrorists that attacking civilians is not acceptable in Islam, to show that terrorism actually alienates average people from their religion, to suggest that the police are not anti-Islam and to exploit internal antagonisms within terrorist networks to turn militants against each other. These intense debates, which rely partly on Quranic scholarship, can last for months. Meanwhile, other former militants appear on Indonesian television to express remorse for having killed their countrymen and women. The Deradicalisation program already has delivered. According to a recent report by the independent, nonprofit International Crisis Group, the Indonesian plan has “persuaded about two dozen members of Jemaah Islamiyah ... to cooperate with the police.” Deradicalisation could work far beyond Southeast Asia. In 2004, Saudi Arabia launched its own version of Deradicalisation. Under the Saudi version, militants in jail who agree to undergo intense classroom sessions receive shorter sentences. The sessions, designed to convince extremists that Islam does not condone terrorism, come combined with psychological deprogramming. Saudi officials say the program has been very successful. Major terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia have plummeted compared with 2004. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has said that the Saudi initiative might be one reason for the sharp decline in the number of foreign fighters coming into Iraq. Even Western nations facing radical threats seem to be learning. In perhaps the most sweeping Western initiative, Britain, stunned by a wave of terrorist attacks committed by its citizens, has attempted to build far deeper relationships with domestic Muslim groups, relying on them to help deradicalise potential young militants who could be transformed into suicide bombers. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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Legal Notes EVER since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a statement favouring a federal investigating agency for terror cases and organised crimes which have a pan-Indian impact, the demand for establishing such an agency is gaining momentum amid reservations from the Left and the regional parties. Since the lack of coordination between different states and their police forces is proving a major hurdle to investigate terrorism, naxal attacks and organised crime, pressure is being mounted on the Centre from various quarters to take a quick decision, particularly after the PM had spoken his mind about it in the recent meeting of Chief Ministers on internal security. The supporters of the move cite the recommendations of various commissions on police reforms and the latest by the Soli Sorabjee committee. But the main hurdle in taking the decision is due to coalition politics as the Left parties and regional parties were averse to the idea. They see it as a direct threat to the state’s jurisdiction by the Centre as policing is purely a state subject. The Left Front government in West Bengal is even averse to high courts ordering CBI probes in state cases without its approval, as was evident in the Nandigram case, which it has challenged in the apex court.
Sydney match dispute The high voltage debate on a series of wrong decisions in the cricket Test match at Sydney is seeing legal advisers to the BCCI fighting it out with the ICC by looking at every legal option including taking the matter to the International Sports Arbitration Tribunal, if the Indian board fails to get relief from the world cricket body. Several lawyers having expertise in sports related arbitration cases say that the BCCI has a plethora of evidence against the two umpires – Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson – which clearly prove that India has been grossly cheated. The Indian team is a clear winner if the extra runs scored by Australian batsmen due to wrong decisions are taken out. The video evidence is very strongly in favour. In the first innings, Australia scored 463. If captain Rickey Ponting (55) and Andrew Symonds (163) were declared correctly out at 17 and 30, Australia’s total score would have been only 293. Similarly in the second innings Michael Hussey scored 145 with umpires not ruling him out at 45. This gave Australia 100 extra runs in a score of 407 for 7. Thus Australia’s total from both innings would have actually been 600 not 870. India’s total of 532 plus 210 thus comes to 742. The other feature that could be added to the case was that Australia would not have even been in a position to declare at 407 in second innings. In such an eventuality the match in any case would have ended in a draw. This will make a strong case for the Indian team in any international legal forum, they say.
Though a three-judge Bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India, had clarified that the much debated judgement of a division Bench of Justices A K Mathur and Markandey Katju on judicial “overreach” would not have any effect on the apex court in dealing with genuine PILs, the verdict is certainly having its impact with lawyers citing it “conveniently” in many cases, particularly where the high courts have passed an order which “prima facie” gives the impression of judicial overactivism. On the first day of the opening of the Supreme Court after winter vacation, at least in three cases the plea of “judicial legislation” was made by lawyers in a bid to drive home the point that the orders passed by the high courts were encroachment upon the executive domain. In all the three cases – Himachal taxi operators’ plea against metered taxis, Star TV’s against TRAI’s jurisdiction in broadcasting services and the Delhi High Court order imposing Rs 500 cost in every traffic challan in the capital – the issue of judicial encroachment into the executive’s powers were raked up. In various other PILs, the Bench headed by the Chief Justice himself and other Benches also have started applying strict norms to weed out “frivolous” petitions being moved in the garb of public interest. |
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