Monday, September 25, 2006

Indian Govt vs. highest court



Today the Govt of India and Delhi had another day in the Supreme Court. If it was something else, the resolve and dedication shown by the Govt would be incredible. If the Govt showed some of these slippery properties while advancing its reform agenda in the face of opposition from its allies, then the growth that we have seen would have been much further ahead. Instead, all the effort of the Govt is to push the agenda of something that is patently illegal. Shows the true value of money and vote bank politics in a democracy.
The traders are caught in the middle. Due to the failure of the governing agencies to follow and enforce the law all these years (heaven knows the amount of corruption that this would have lead to), the trader community had got entrenched in their positions. Their stand is simple, we are here, so legalize it. And the Govt nodded its head and said "Yes Sir". Thus you have ministers making statements like "laws we make are not subject to judicial review", "we just have the best interests of people", and the best one "trust us to do the right thing".
So today the Supreme Court did not give an order, they reserved their orders for a few days away. No doubt the Govt is sweating. The Govt will certainly not be the winner in a confrontation with the judiciary. One possible outcome is that the Court will give a severe whip-lashing to the Govt about not following its orders and using the law and order bogey to not take any action. The other likely outcome is that the Court is not going to order uprooting of small establishments, instead going after the bigger fish who end up ruining perfectly quiet and peaceful residential areas. Let us hope that this will be the outcome.




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posted by Ashish Agarwal @ 11:09 AM