NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has in a recent order dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an 84-year-old man, seeking to replace the term 'Central government' with 'Union' or 'Union government' in all orders, notifications and correspondences.
"Federalism is the basic structure of the Constitution and it cannot be said it is diluted or violated by the use of the expression 'Central government' instead of 'Union government', a bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan said, refusing to entertain the petition filed by Atmaram Saraogi from Kolkata.
Saraogi had moved the high court seeking a direction to the Union of India, through the Ministry of Law and Justice, to use the expression 'Union', 'Union government' or 'Union of India' instead of 'Central government', 'Centre' or any other similar reference.
But the Delhi HC did not find any merit in Saraogi's plea and dismissed it.
"Thus, this Court will not enter into the arena of legislation, which is not within the domain of this Court," the bench said in the order and refused to entertain the PIL.
The Court went on to say that the basic structure of our Constitution is the foundation on which the governance of our country is rooted.
The HC refused to allow the submission of the petitioner that the use of the expression 'Central government' gives the wrong impression that state governments are subordinate to the Union government.
Saraogi had moved the Delhi HC seeking a direction to strike down the definition of 'Central government' as defined under Section 3(8)(b) of the General Clauses Act.
"We do not find any merit in the petition of Mr Saraogi. We thereby dismis it," the court said.
Saraogi in his plea said that he has a genuine concern to correct this continued error of usage of terms, which has the potential to strain the relationship between the Union government and the state government. Thereby this court should pass appropriate directions and or orders into his plea.
He further tried to say that the term "Central government" found no place in the Constitution of India and even a parliamentary committee favoured the usage of "Union government".