Some institutions have lost legitimacy; judiciary stepping into legislative areas : Damodaran

Lamenting that some institutions have lost legitimacy, former Sebi chairman M Damodaran on Tuesday rued that the judiciary has stepped into the area of legislature in “recent times”.

On its part, the legislature has also not sufficiently discussed and debated laws before they were passed, the career bureaucrat, who now heads a corporate governance-focused advisory, said.

The comments come days after concerns were expressed about the judicial intervention in the farm laws matter, where the Supreme Court stayed implementation of all the three laws which were passed by Parliament without what some constituencies call as sufficient deliberation.

“There are some institutions that have lost relevance or have lost legitimacy or have proved to be inadequate whether in terms of the objectives with which they were set up or the capacity that they have to deliver on what they were intended to do,” Damodaran said, speaking at a seminar organised by NSE.

“If you look at three major organs of the government, for years the judiciary has stepped into the areas of the executive. On occasion, perhaps legitimately, because the executive did not measure up, did not do what was expected of it. In recent times, the judiciary is getting into the areas of legislature,” he said.

Noted lawyer Arvind Datar also expressed concerns along similar lines, saying there is “virtually no difference” between a government notification and an important legislation stating that such legislation is “framed by a ministry and just pushed through Parliament”.

“A lot of the problems with the farm laws could have been avoided if it had gone through Parliament,” he said, suggesting a system where every new law has to be compulsorily sent to a select committee of Parliament.

To make institutions work better, former head of National Judicial Academy Mohan Gopal suggested long-term sustainable institutionalization by devolution of power and decentralization.

One must understand the limits of change, and the way ahead is to understand the points where change is possible, form a consensus with relevant stakeholders and move on, he said.

Datar suggested changes including timely appointment of judges at the High Court level once their names are cleared by the collegium and also nurturing non-government organisations.