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Friday, Aug 25, 2006

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Adhere to Constitutional scheme: Speaker

Special Correspondent

Somnath Chatterjee delivers the G.V. Mavalankar memorial lecture on `Judiciary and Legislature under the Constitution'

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said on Thursday that as the Constitution was the fountainhead of Indian Parliamentary democracy, it was the duty of all concerned to ensure that the constitutional scheme was scrupulously adhered to and that no organ went beyond what had been assigned to it.

"It is the duty of all concerned, including the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary, to ensure that this balance is scrupulously adhered to. And suffice it to say that as the institution that encompassed in its fold the sovereign will of the people, it is Parliament which enjoys primacy, within the constitutional mandate; after all, the Constitution is the fountain-head of our parliamentary democracy," Mr. Chatterjee said delivering the G.V. Mavalankar memorial lecture on `Judiciary and Legislature under the Constitution,' here.

Paying tributes to the memory of Mr. Mavalankar, the Speaker said the nation recalled with reverence and admiration the remarkable contributions that Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar made to parliamentary traditions and laid the foundations of establishing the framework of a working democracy.

"As the first Speaker of a new-born nation's highest representative body, Mavalankarji's role was not merely that of a moderator and facilitator of its functioning, but of a statesman and an institution-builder. He not only guided the proceedings in the House with rare finesse but also carved out a niche for himself as an outstanding leader and a highly accomplished parliamentary administrator," Mr. Chatterjee said.

He said that having come through 14 general elections and experienced a good degree of political stability for nearly six decades, no one would dispute that Indian democracy had come of age and that democracy was here to stay. The voters had time and again proven their maturity and political prudence by using the power of the ballot to change the Government, six out of those 14 times.

Regretting that debates and discussions, the hallmark of democracy, were being overshadowed by disruption, confrontation and other non-democratic alternatives, Mr. Chatterjee said frequent disorderly scenes and forced adjournments did not serve Indian democracy better than reasoned debates and articulation of people's problems on the floor of the chambers.

While observing that the confidence of the people in the justice-delivery system was an essential pre- requisite for the survival of democracy, Mr. Chatterjee said the loss of that confidence could lead to instability and threaten the very essence of democracy. Judicial reforms would have no meaning for the people if they were not able to approach the court and not have their matters taken up by competent lawyers at affordable costs and have their cases disposed of in reasonable time.

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