Uttarakhand being run by the judiciary, not the government says Koshiyari

The relations between the judiciary and the executive are usually as loggerheads as the former had in the past allegedly turned down lot of decisions of the governments for the betterment and in the interest of the countrymen withholding them or terming them as infructuous. At times it had directed the government to formulate new laws and abolishing archaich n old ones,devised by the Britishers but are not relevant in the present context.

The recent decisions in the context of repealing article 377, decision on Triple Talaq asking the govt to make law on it and decriminalising the primitive law that gave freedom to marriageable women to have their free independent choice in terms of sex etc are some of the historic decisions accorded by the apex court recently.

There have been several cases on burning issues when the judiciary had to take suo motto congnisance of certain important issues and deliver judgements which are usually pronounced as the media trial.

The point is simple: when the distressed people find it difficult to get their difficulties and problems unresolved after running from pillar to posts they have no option but to go to the honourable courts’ to seek justice.

While the rational and people oriented decisions sometimes are of immense significance while sometimes hard to digest.

While retiring from the Supreme Court as the chief justice, the outgoing CJ Deepak Mishra while handing the chair
to Ranjan Gogoi, has said that the judiciary should always consider the humanitarian aspect in mind while delivering justice. Really sounds apt.

However, no political leader has so far questioned the integrity or the style of functioning of the courts in the country as judicial justice is considered to be above anybody or anythng giving everybody the right to appeal in higher courts in case he or she ( the petitioner) finds the judgement unjustifiable.

In Uttarakhand today a news is dominating in every newspaper headlines and the electronic channels about the memorandum/ letter submitted to the union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad by the veteran BJP leader, MP from Nainital and former CM, Uttarakhand Bhagat Singh Kshiyari in which he has questioned the recent decisions of the Nainital High court in particular n the states’ judiciary in general , openly saying catagorically that its not the government but the judiciary which is running the government in Uttarakhand.

According to Koshiyari’s two page letter handed over to the law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, personally, raising the issues like income loss to the hoteliers n the employees of the Nainital Hotels in view of the non availability of parking facility, prohibiting construction activities in the two nautical miles area of Nainital, granting of court’s stay in the home stay facility, stoppage of adventure tourism n rafting in the state, eviction of the people living in areas for the last three to four decades n changing of time of the Naino Doon Shatabdi express, etc, Koshiyari questioned the humanitarian aspect of the courts’ while allegedly destabilising thousands of people living in some areas for the last 40 years ?

It may be recalled that after acknowledging lot of problems being faced by the electorates of his constituency Nainital as well in other parts of Uttarakhand due to the increasing activity of the courts in delivering judgements with certain legal deterrents thus giving an impression that the UK government is being run by the judiciary and not by the executive, former CM and MP Bhagat Singh Koshiyari met the union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad requesting him to intervene at the earliest to help resolve the present impasse of judicial activism in the state amounting to immense hardships to the people of the 19 year old state.

Koshiaryi termed the Public Interest Litigation as the Publity Interest Litigant usually filed for gaining cheap popularity, and said that as a public representative whenever we approach the bureaucrats for getting the developmental works done or executed, they express their inability for the fear of court and say that they have to give explanation to the high court. As a result the works of development n peoples’ welfare stops or conducted very feebly.

If the trend continues the people of the state would be totally bereft or devoid of development, employment and other aspects say Koshiyari.

He said that the people of Uttarakhand are ready to come on the roads against such judicial activism. He cautioned the law minister Mr. Prasad to immedialy resolve this impasse before it becomes too late and pressure cooker of anger n frustation of the distressed people explodes causing much n incalculable harm.

The Congress president of Uttarakhand n former minister Pritam Singh too said earlier that it’s primarily the judiciary of the state which is running the government, not the BJP government.

Mr. Koshiyari’s action therefore seems to be an extended exercise in continuation to the statement of the Congress’s state chief Pritam Singh.