The Supreme Court in its two verdicts in the 2G scam case on Thursday outrightly rejected the government’s argument that judiciary cannot interfere in the policy decisions of the executive, saying if any policy was contrary to the public interest and helped a handful of powerful people, the court has the inherent powers to exercise its jurisdiction in such cases to correct the illegalities committed.
A bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly ruled that if any policy decision “is violative of the constitutional principles, it is the duty of the court to exercise its jurisdiction in larger public interest and reject the stock plea of government that the scope of judicial review should not be exceeded beyond recognised parameters.”
The top court said when any “public spirited” person brings such cases before the court, the judiciary has to exercise its powers to “ensure that the institutional integrity is not compromised by those in whom the people have reposed trust and who have taken oath to discharge duties in accordance with the Constitution and the law without fear and favour, affection or ill-will and who, as any other citizen, enjoy fundamental rights but is bound to perform his duty.”
Applying these principles to allocation of 2G licences by Mr Raja on January 10, 2008 ignoring the advice of law ministry for referring the matter to GOM, finance secretary’s suggestion that licences could not allotted on the basis of 2001 price.