Governors neither assenting to a bill nor forwarding it for presidential consent and not returning it to the legislature for reconsideration was also against constitutional morality.
Pervez Bari | Clarion India
BHOPAL — “Bulldozer justice is not good. Rule of law doesn’t permit it. When the state starts delivering instant justice in the form of staged encounters, it is problematic. Lynching incidents are partly fallout of delayed justice.”
These observations were made by Justice Madan B. Lokur, a former judge of the Supreme Court. He was speaking on “Constitutional Morality” at the Bharat Bhavan here on the concluding day of the three-day Bhopal Literature and Art Festival 2024.
Justice Lokur asserted that the government sitting on the recommendations of Supreme Court collegiums, governors sitting on bills passed by the state assemblies and legislature speakers sitting on pleas seeking disqualification of legislators under the anti-defection law — all of these are examples of constitutional immorality.
“It is true that the constitution does not prescribe any time limit for the government or the governors or the speakers to take a decision, but then, the constitution is not a manual laying down standard operating procedures (SOPs) for everything,” Justice Lokur said. “Some things — in fact many things — are, and have to be governed by conventions,” he added.
Justice Lokur said that the government objecting to the appointment of a person as a Supreme Court judge because he is supposed to be gay or not acting on SC collegiums’ recommendations for appointments to higher judiciary for months or even years was something which, though not expressly unconstitutional, was against the grain of constitutional morality.
Similarly, he said, governors neither assenting to a bill, nor forwarding it for presidential consent and not returning it to the legislature for reconsideration was also against constitutional morality. Citing the example of Maharashtra, the ex-judge said that the speaker of the legislative assembly did not decide a petition seeking disqualification of MLAs under anti-defection law even after the SC nudged him.
At a question-and-answer session, Justice Lokur said that five crore cases pending in courts was a travesty of justice.
“But it is not an insurmountable problem. There are ways to tackle it and it should be done,” he said. “If I file a case and my grandchildren get justice, it is fatal to the justice system,” Justice Lokur remarked.
The session was moderated by senior Supreme Court advocate Bishwajit Bhattacharya.
Justice Lokur said that problems arise when there is a perception that the chief justice is allocating key cases or sensitive cases to a certain judge or a set of certain judges. “All judges are equal.”
Honesty, integrity
“Today fingers are raised on a judge being appointed as a member of Rajya Sabha or a governor after retirement. It did not happen when M.C. Chagla was appointed to the Union Council of Ministers. That was because of the change in perception about honesty and integrity of individuals,” he opined.
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Photo: Justice Madan B. Lokur, a former judge of the Supreme Court, speaking on “Constitutional Morality” at the Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal on the concluding day of the three-day Bhopal Literature and Art Festival 2024.
