Kolkata: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today (Oct 11, 2004) dwelling on the subject of "judicial activism", called for a proper understanding among the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary in discharging their responsibilities, and said they were meant to be active within their own limits.

Chatterjee, who was speaking at a symposium on 'Relationship between the Legislature and the Judiciary' in Kolkata, said that the proponents of judicial activism had taken it as a normal assertion of judicial power, as a part of the judicial review and the necessary inbuilt mechanism to uphold the rule of law and the principles of natural justice.

He said, "If they overstep their assigned limits or display trends towards unexpected exercise of what they assume to be their power, each of them suffer and in the process the ultimate casualty is the larger national interest."

He said it was therefore essential to have a proper understanding among the three organs of the State, while discharging different responsibilities. "They are meant to be active within their own limits, and through their individual functioning, they are expected to reinforce each other,'' the Lok Sabha Speaker said.

The Speaker said many Parliamentarians and legislators had expressed the view that the Judiciary had, at times, transgressed its jurisdiction and entered the domain of the Executive and the Legislature.