Experts nix YSRC’s plan to get HC vet its policies
Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday said his government would have all its policy decisions vetted by the AP High Court and the Comptroller and Auditor-General before being implemented.
Any media organisation criticising the policy after it is cleared would be booked for contempt, the YSRC chief said, expand- ing on a proposal he had first made during his exclusive interview with this newspaper.
However, experts said that the YSRC proposal is unconstitutional and impractical.
Speaking to this newspaper, senior counsel Ramakrishna Reddy said there was no provision in the Constitution for such a plan. If the state government does file such petitions asking for clearance of policy, the High Court may throw it into the dustbin. “Under which law will the state government ask for advance clearance, and under which provision of the Constitution will the High Court give its clearance,” he asked.
According to Article 143 of the Constitution, the Centre can ask the Supreme Court for advice on any issue, but the SC may or may not oblige.
There is no provision for the state government to approach the High Court.
Senior counsel Ramakrishna Reddy said that the CAG is a Constitutional body to audit the government expenditure. It comes into the picture after the government spends the money, and not before.
Constitutional expert P.P. Rao too said that the YSR Congress proposal was constitutionally invalid and not practicable.
Chartered accountant Narasimha Murthy said that the CAG does not do pre-audits. The CAG only examines whether or not the government expenditure was done according to rules. However, he said, the state government can appoint any agency on its own to get a preaudit, but the CAG will not do this.
Earlier, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy told the media, while releasing the party’s manifesto, that everyone was speaking about corrup- tion but no one had come up with an idea on curbing it.
He explained that the YSRC, on forming government, would forward tender documents and policy decisions involving public money to the High Court and the Comptroller and Auditor General in advance, instead of leaving them to do a post-mortem.
He said that the government would follow suggestions given by the High Court and CAG before implementing policy. He also said that his government would ask the High Court and the CAG to suggest a suitable authority that would review policy decisions before it is implemented.
After that, he said, if any media, “particularly Eenadu” writes against such government decisions, cases should be booked for contempt of court and they would be jailed.
He said that the YSRC government would not be scared of media attacks, and would be accountable to the people.