Round 1 to the judiciary in its 'battle' with MPs
Apr 28, 2007 - 8:18:29 AM
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The political class, therefore, seems to be at a dead end in its tussles with the judiciary.
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By Amulya Ganguli,
[RxPG] The latest confrontation between the Indian parliament and the judiciary has come at an inconvenient time for the former. Having received yet another debilitating body blow from the arrest of an MP on charges of human trafficking, and the levelling of similar charges against others, the legislature is obviously not in a position to effectively challenge the judiciary.
As it is, the MPs have had to cope with the allegation that at least 40 of them have serious criminal charges pending against them while there are about a hundred others involved in petty cases.
According to a study conducted on the basis of the affidavits filed by 541 MPs of the present Lok Sabha, the lower house, the number of parliamentarians with major criminal charges carrying penalties of imprisonment for five years or more was 34.8 percent.
Given this unedifying record, the standard claim of the lawmakers that their voice should have precedence over the judiciary's voice because they represent the people is unlikely to carry much weight.
The recent not-so-friendly advice given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the judiciary against over-reaching may not have as much impact, therefore, as the government probably wishes. The same goes for a similar veiled warning given by the Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee.
The MPs as well as the chief ministers and leaders of mainly the caste-based parties have been up in arms against the Supreme Court over the stay order issued by it in relation to the implementation of quotas for students belonging to the Other Backward Classes - for admission to institutes of higher learning.
Their argument is that since the law in this regard had been passed by parliament, a few judges cannot hold up their implementation. Not surprisingly, the Left has joined this chorus of protest since the Marxist doctrines say that the judiciary in a 'bourgeois' society invariably acts in favour of the vested interests and against the socially and educationally backward groups.
Even the 'socialists' in the Congress echo this view, with Digvijay Singh, a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, saying that the 'people of India will have to ponder why the Supreme Court always goes against the underprivileged'.
While the arguments for and against the quota system, and on the issue of its impact on a meritocracy, have been raging ever since the reservations were extended from the traditionally favoured Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to OBCs, the judiciary's latest intervention has added a more bitter flavour to the debate.
The reason is that while the earlier interventions related mainly to reserving jobs in the public sector, the latest ones concern the so-called 'islands of excellence' such as the Indian Institute of Technology - and Indian Institute of Management -, which are credited with giving India an edge in the world of Information Technology and the corporate sector.
Since there is a huge demand for seats in these academic institutes, the feeling among sections of the student community is that the quotas will not only keep out many deserving candidates because of the 'disadvantage' of belonging to the upper castes, but also gradually lower the standards of these institutes because of the accommodation of the less qualified students.
The political class, however, looks at the matter in a different perspective. Realizing that the numerical preponderance of the backward castes makes them a valuable 'vote bank', none of the parties is willing to oppose the quota system.
What is more, since many of the regional parties have risen to power mainly on the basis of the OBC votes in their specific states, and lack both an all-India presence and a broader outlook, they are unwilling to back down. Among such parties are the DMK and PMK of Tamil Nadu and the Janata Dal - of Bihar.
In their arguments, they equate the OBCs with the poor and the upper castes with the rich although such generalizations do not fully reflect the reality.
Interestingly, some of the north Indian parties associated with the OBCs and Dalits such as the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal - and Bahujan Samaj Party - have been more restrained this time because they have lately been reaching out to the upper castes as well because of the realization that the support of OBCs alone is not enough for winning a sufficient number of seats.
Between the three pillars of democracy - the legislature, the executive and the judiciary - the prestige of the last named has always been high. But now it is probably even higher because of the steady erosion of parliament's prestige.
The political class is aware, of course, of this decline. But it is seemingly at a loss as to how to check it because of the dependence of virtually all the parties on powerful politicians who are not averse to the use of money, liquor and muscle power to win elections.
All the suggestions to remedy the situation made by the Law Commission and the Election Commission about disqualifying candidates with a criminal background have failed to secure parliament's approval on the grounds that they might become victims of fraudulent charges.
The political class, therefore, seems to be at a dead end in its tussles with the judiciary.
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