NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday witnessed an unusual exchange of words between Attorney General K K Venugopal and Justice Madan B Lokur after the former questioned the apex court’s habit of making critical comments against the government while hearing PILs.
Expressing the government’s discomfiture, the AG urged the SC to restrain itself from making sweeping observations without considering all aspects of a problem.
Referring to some of the adverse observations of the court as reported in newspapers, he said, “Day after day I have been reading your observations. But a judge may not be knowing all aspects of all the problems.”
Justice Lokur shot back saying, “We’re trying to solve some of these problems and referred to the matters relating to the rights of widows, children and prisoners which were being dealt with by the apex court. We are also citizens of this country and we know the problems which the country is facing.”
The exchange happened when the court was hearing a PIL on the inhuman conditions in 1,382 prisons in India and the bench mooted the idea of setting up of a committee to look into the conditions of incarcerated prisoners.
The SC asked the Centre to file details of the proposed committee by August 17.
The A-G told the bench that he was not criticising the apex court but the problems facing the country were enormous and, in the past, its orders and judgments had resulted in a situation where people had lost their jobs.
“But you must also understand that orders have repercussions. They may have several consequences which could affect rights of some other class. For them, the government has to think,” he said, adding that the cancellation of 2G licences by the court virtually wiped out huge foreign investments.
“Similarly, orders on removing liquor vends by increasing the distance from highways caused financial loss. People lost their livelihood,” he said, adding that all PILs should be decided in a balanced manner.
He said, “India has a multitude of problems. Extent of poverty, illiteracy, lack of awareness are serious issues and the government needs to first look at those who don’t even earn Rs 100 a day,” said the AG, adding that “It is not that we have done nothing or we are doing nothing. Not everything is negative.”
To this, Justice Lokur said it was because of the court’s order that the government had collected over Rs 1,50,000 crore as environment funds for illegal mining.
The bench said, “Let us make it clear that we have not and we are not criticising the government for everything. We are also citizens of this country. Do not give the impression that we are criticising the government and preventing it from working. We are only enforcing rights of people. We cannot wish away Article 21.”