Sumitra Mahajan : CPA worried about growing judicial activism

PATNA: There should be no confrontation between legislature, executive and judiciary as the three institutions work in their own domain and are independent of each other, Lok Sabha Speaker and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) India Region chairperson Sumitra Mahajan said here on Sunday.
Flanked by CPA London secretary general Akbar Khan and Bihar assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Sumitra said this in the backdrop of the in-camera deliberations that CPA delegates held on the two main themes at the sixth conference, also called the Patna conference of CPA India Region.Among the decisions taken at the Patna conference, it was unanimously decided to widen and increase activities and programme under its area. Similarly, the state legislatures have been divided into four groups for regular exchange of ideas within the groups, including holding seminars and discussions, for which Parliament would provide money and experts.
Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had earlier delivered the keynote address on ‘Legislature and Judiciary: Two Pillars of Democracy’ on Saturday while senior parliamentarian Murli Manohar Joshi had spoken on the ‘Role of parliamentarians in development’ the same day.
Sumitra said the participants expressed concern over “growing judicial activism” and occasional impinging on the “working” of the legislature by the judiciary. The case of Uttarakhand assembly came up for special mention during the discussion in this regard. “However, they also agreed that there should be no confrontation between legislature and judiciary and also that confrontation should be avoided,” she said, adding the judiciary comes into the picture because “we ourselves might be having lacuna in our working”.