The Hindu Business Line : Guardians of our democracy

THE CONTROVERSY on the powers of the Judiciary vis-à-vis the Executive and the Legislature — focusing on the Supreme Court's recent directive to the Jharkhand Governor to bring forward the date to test the strength of the different parties in the House from March 15 to March 11, and its view that the order should be treated as "the notification for convening the State Assembly" — is good for the country because of two important reasons. First, it has once again brought to the fore the inappropriateness of the political functioning of the country, as testified to by none other than the highest court of the land.

Second, the controversy has underlined the allied issue of who will then ensure that moral standards are safeguarded in the running of the country.

Whatever the debate swirling around the Jharkhand Governor, Syed Sibte Razi's actions regarding the calling of Mr Shibu Soren to form the State Government and giving him more than ample time to prove his majority on the floor of the House, the fact is almost incontrovertible that the standard of political life in the country has sunk to a new low in recent years.

Clearly, since politics and politicians always form the core of a parliamentary democracy, the onset of this unwanted trend is dangerous for the healthy growth of the Indian republic. So what is to be done to arrest the trend and reverse it, if possible?

For the sake of argument, if the courts were not entitled to enter the picture, where would Mr Arjun Munda, the former Jharkhand Chief Minister, have gone to register his formal protest? To the President of the republic perhaps who, in this case at least, had already done his bit by summoning the Governor and getting a "preponement" of the floor-test in the House.

It is just possible — especially in the interests of the keeping the "separation of powers" intact in the constitutional scheme of things which governs the functioning of our republic — that the President would have taken matters to their logical conclusion and got the Governor to do exactly what the Supreme Court has done — among other things, to get the floor-test completed in the shortest possible time.

There can be no two opinions that this would have been the best "solution" to the present crisis, in that the Executive wing of governance would have dealt with a specifically Executive issue. But, of course, everything would depend on the President, and one cannot ignore the fact that Emergency of 1975-77 was made seamlessly possible because of the willingness of the President of the day to sign on the dotted line.

So, clearly, the Executive cannot itself be a dependable check on excesses committed by the Executive. The involvement of the Legislature has to be ruled out on the ground that it is itself a prominent player in the arena and, therefore, cannot have an objective enough point to view to attempt to solve the problem impartially. That leaves the Judiciary, which thankfully enough still commands the respect of the republic's citizens.

The problem is that, in this particular instance where the formation of a State government is involved, it will go totally against the spirit of democracy if a body (the court) which is appointed, and not elected, is seen to have the last word on a subject that involves the electoral choice of the people.

So what does the nation do in such a situation? Clearly, it is the elected law-makers who must take the initiative here. But where are the politicians who can take the lead in such a situation — at a time when Power has effectively dethroned Principle?

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

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