Friday, May 13 2005 08:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee yesterday (May 12, 2005) termed the recent Supreme Court order on Jharkhand Assembly as "unfortunate" and "violative" of the Constitution and hoped that the Apex Court will review it in accordance with similar situation in the past.

"I respectfully reiterate that in the Jharkhand Assembly case, the Supreme Court gave an unfortunate non-speaking order, which, to my mind, violates Article 212 of the Constitution in several respects," he said delivering the 2nd Nani Palkhivala Memorial Lecture in New Delhi.

Enumerating the far-reaching impact of the Apex Court's interim order advancing the floor test for the then Sibu Soren Government despite Governor Sayed Sibte Razi having fixed the date for the purpose, Chatterjee said the Supreme Court order was a "deviation" from the generally understood Constitutional scheme of separation of powers.

"I pointed out then and I would like to repeat here that if the Assembly had ignored or flouted the order, the Supreme Court would have been confronted with the most embarrassing situation in which it would have been unable to secure the enforcement of its order, thus undermining the authority and prestige of the court," he said.

Chatterjee, delivering the lecture on 'The Scheme of Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances in the Constitution', said, "It may be noticed that the order of the Supreme Court could not actually resolve the problem which was possible only by Executive intervention."

Chatterjee was also critical of the Apex Court's order directing the manner in which the Speaker was asked to conduct the proceedings of the House.

"For the Presiding Officers of the Legislatures to be directed by the Court of law to discharge their function in a given manner, would create a wholly unworkable and unacceptable situation," he said.

The Apex Court in the Jharkhand case on March 9 had ordered the video recording of the proceedings of the floor test and had said its interim order would be regarded as a notice for convening of the Assembly and no separate orders would be required for this purpose.

The Speaker said earlier also there had been occasions when different organs differed in their perception of Constitutional schemes, in some occasions involving the powers and domain of the legislature and judiciary.

He referred the Jagadambika Pal case of 1998 involving the Uttar Pradesh Assembly along with the recent Jharkhand Assembly case.

He said many perceived the concept of "composite floor test" introduced by the Supreme Court in these two cases, as an "avoidable interference" with the powers and privileges of the Legislature by the Judiciary.

"The interim order of the Supreme Court in these two case, to my mind, upset the delicate constitutional balance between the Judiciary and the Legislature," Chatterjee said.

"I feel that these were instances of unfortunate and serious encroachment by the Supreme Court on well demarcated areas of supremacy of different constitutional institutions," he said and hoped that "the Apex Court will one day, before long, review its order and set it aside as it has done in similar situations in the past".