SC pulls up govt for asking court to show restraint

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the government after the latter asked the court to “restrain” from making adverse remarks against governance while dealing with (public interest litigations) PILS.

The apex court said it was at least “solving problems” and was in no way “criticising the government”. Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the government, told a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur that the court was passing orders in individual PILS without realising the financial impact.

Venugopal made references to newspaper headlines based on the observations made by the bench.

Giving examples, Venugopal said that while the cancellation of the 2G licenses by the court virtually wiped out huge foreign investments, another order for removal of liquor vends on highways caused a financial loss and people lost their livelihood.

“There is a question of budgetary allocations... Government’s 80-90 welfare programmes are going on simultaneously... Court dealing with one issue and passes order but from where the funds would come,” Venugopal pleaded.

“Judges may not know all aspects of every problem when they choose to make adverse comments against the government,” he added.

Justice Lokur shot back saying it was because of the court’s order that the government has collected over Rs 1,50,000 crore as environment funds for illegal mining.

The court wanted to know why that amount has not been spent.

The bench also comprising Justice Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta said: “Let us make it clear that we have not and we are not criticising the government for everything. We are also citizens of this country. Do not give the impression that we are criticising the government and preventing it from working. We are only enforcing rights of people. We cannot wish away Article 21.”

Many developments have happened only because of the orders of the court, the bench said, adding: “You should only ask your officers to follow the laws made by Parliament.”

Judges may not know all aspects of every problem when they choose to make adverse comments against the government K K VENUGOPAL Attorney General