Supreme Court pulls up Centre for asking court to show restraint
New Delhi, Aug 8 :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 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 Centre, told a bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur that the court was passing orders in individual public interest litigations (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 programs 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."
The bench of Justice Lokur has been hearing PILs relating to pollution, environment, garbage, overcrowding of prisons -- conditions of women and children there -- shelter homes for children, rehabilitation of widows, illegal mining and other matters, and passing orders.
Venugopal said that with 1.3 billion population which is increasing exponentially there were several problems faced by the country, and every order on PILs should have a separate note as to the effects of such orders on other sectors, effect on budgeting, rights of others who could be affected and every order has to be balanced and well thought of as India has "enormous problems".
The Attorney General said that he has conveyed his views to the court about dealing with the PILs and the court should consider his submissions without any offence.
The court was hearing a PIL relating to inhuman condition prevailing in 1,382 prisons across the country which are overcrowded.
The court wanted setting up of an one member committee of a retired judge of the apex court to recommend measures on prison reform, including overcrowding, and women prisoners languishing in jails.
It said the Committee would be assisted by two-three government officials that would file periodical reports to the apex court. Posting the matter for August 17, the bench asked the Centre to file details of the proposed committee.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
