Arun Jaitley urges courts to draw 'Lakshman rekha', not to interfere in executive decisions

New Delhi: Days after saying the Judiciary was encroaching upon legislative and executive authority step by step and brick by brick, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asked the courts to draw their own “Lakshman rekha” and not interfere in executive decisions.

Speaking to the press at the Indian Women’s Press Corps, Jaitley stressed on Monday that the Judiciary should allow the Executive to take executive decisions.

“Courts cannot substitute the Executive and say, ‘I (Judiciary) will exercise the Executive power’. If you do so, the three options will not be available, which are there when the Executive takes executive decisions,” Jaitley said, as per The Indian Express.

The three options or layers of accountability the FM was talking about include the people's power to seek changes in executive decisions, the authority of the courts to strike them down, and the fact that the governments can be voted out by the people.

 

“Just as independence of the Judiciary is part of basic structure, the primacy of the Legislature in policy-making is also part of basic structure…. In the name of independence of Judiciary, we cannot compromise the other two basic structures,” he said.

Jaitley also took pot shots at the Supreme Court over the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) issue, saying it is in the policy domain of the Executive to decide how entrance tests should be held.

However, he asserted, the Judiciary and the Executive are “on the same page” when it comes to ensuring the fairness and integrity of exams.