SC order sends off Maya on cloud nine

Monday brought an immense respite to Mayawati led UP government and gave her all reasons to be on the cloud nine with the Supreme Court’s decision in favour of her government regarding the construction in Ambedkar Park in Lucknow.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Markandey Katju and H K Sema come out with the decision allowing UP government to make alteration in Lucknow’s Master Plan for installation of statute of so-called Dalit queen and Chief Minister Mayawati and her political mentor Kanshi Ram.

The bench while setting aside the Allahabad High Court’s interim order of April 04 restricting any construction work in the Ambedkar Park- a public garden in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar said, ‘the prerogative of amending the master plan, comes under the sole jurisdiction of the government and the court has no right to interfere in the executive work.’ The court also observed since such an order violates the right of the legislature and executive and restrains from doing its job mandated to the government by the constitution and so should be ignored.

“If amendment to the Master Plan is permitted under law, the government could do it even if the courts order to the contrary," the bench said.

The Supreme Court came heavily handed on the Allahabad High Court by observing, “How can the High Court pass an interim order on the issue relating to the master plan which is not in the domain of the judiciary?”

On the other hand the bench also surprisingly did not show their interest to pass any direction on a contempt petition against the UP Chief Minister despite the construction work undertaken at the park, which was the complete breach of the stay order on April 08 issued by the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan.

Instead the bench came with the strong observation that judiciary should restraint itself from policy decisions of the executive.

The observation is remarkable one and also the attention catcher of the Indian Parliament and the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee who repeatedly have been complaining the Court should remain in its domain and should stay off from crossing the demarcation line between the legislative and judiciary.

This time it is not legislative body but the judiciary, which taught a lesson to its subordinate body not to interfere in the legislative and executive work and stated, “Courts must know their limits. Judiciary cannot do whatever it feels like.”

The Justices not only allowed the government to go ahead with the construction work but also stayed the proceeding relating to the matter going on at the Allahabad High Court.

The bench also gave its nod to allow the transfer petition of the UP government seeking transfer of these cases to the Apex Court.

The bench also issued notice to Gomati Nagar Jan Kalyan Maha Samiti and other petitioners on the plea of the state government seeking transfer of all cases relating to Ambedkar Park to the Supreme Court and stayed all proceedings in the High Court.

A bench of Supreme Court was hearing the cases on the petition filed by senior advocates Harish Salve and SC Mishra presented on behalf of Mayawati government.