Government appeals ruling on caste law

Decision has caused a lot of commotion and anger in the country, attorney-general says

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government yesterday filed a review petition in the apex Supreme Court (SC) against its March 20 verdict on the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act, stating that dilution of the Act has resulted in “great damage to the country.”

“This judgement has diluted the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act read with the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, resulting in great damage to the country. It is essential that the conclusions be reviewed and recalled, so that no basis for misunderstanding the judgement or its impact on the implementation of the Atrocities Act would continue,” attorney-general K.K. Venugopal said in his written submission to the top court.

He said the court was dealing with an issue of a “very sensitive nature”.

“This case dealing with an issue of very sensitive nature has caused a lot of commotion in the country and is also creating anger, unease and a sense of disharmony. The confusion created by this judgement may have to be corrected by reviewing the judgement and recalling the directions issued by this Honourable Court,” the submission further read.

The government said the entire judgement was “vitiated” as it proceeded on the basis that the court has the power to make law when none existed.

“The bland statement that power to declare law carries with it, within the limits of duty, to make law when none exists is wholly fallacious, because we live under a written Constitution, of which separation of powers between the legislatures, the executive and the judiciary is the very basic structure and is inviolable. What else, therefore, does it mean, if in the teeth of the separation of powers, the highest court in the country says that the judiciary in the country can lay down law contrary to a statute passed by Parliament,” the Attorney General said.

Separation of powers

The government submitted that the top court was not “filling in gaps” but was “amending” through judicial legislation.

“In India, separation of powers being part of the basic structure of the Constitution, there was no room for the court declaring that it could legislate and make plenary law. They are, pure and simple, the exercise of the power of plenary legislation. The confusion created by the judgement, it is submitted, deserves to be corrected,” it said.