Image credit: The Indian Express
Criticising the lack of proper debate in Parliament, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Sunday called the situation a “sorry state of affairs”. He was speaking at an event marking Independence Day at the Supreme Court.
An NDTV report quoted Justice Ramana as saying, “(There is) No clarity of laws. We do not know what the purpose of the law is. It is a loss to the public. This is when lawyers and intellectuals are not in the Houses.”
“Unfortunate what you see now in the Houses... Debates back then in the Houses were very constructive. I saw the debates over financial bills and very constructive points were made. Laws were discussed and deliberated. One had a clear picture of the legislative part of the law," he said, according to the NDTV report.
Justice Ramana also appealed to the lawyers to not be confined to the legal service, but contribute their time to the public service as well.
“If we look at our freedom fighters, many of them were also in the legal fraternity. The first members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were filled with lawyers' community," he added.
His remarks come in the wake of the tumultuous Monsoon session of Parliament during which 20 bills were passed in both the Houses either with no or minimal discussion. Most of these bills were passed with neither the comments from the ministers or clarifications sought by members audible to others. Not a single issue was taken up for discussion in Lok Sabha. Accusing the prime minister of demeaning democratic and parliamentary processes, Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge had said earlier this month, “Last week, the BJP government ramrodded 10 bills of national importance in 97 minutes. Parliament was condescendingly granted 9.7 minutes to reflect, deliberate on and pass each bill.”
The Monsson session witnessed continued protests by the Opposition as demands for discussion on Pegasus snooping scandal, farmers’ protests, and price rise were raised. The government, however, went ahead and kept passing the bills amid din. The Opposition has accused the NDA government of “bulldozing” bills by denying them their “legitimate right” of discussion.