It’s neither the judiciary nor the legislature, but the Constitution that is supreme in India, Justice D.V.S.S. Somayajulu, Judge of Andhra Pradesh High Court, has said.
Speaking on ‘Judiciary in Retrospect and Prospect’ at a meeting organised jointly by the Centre for Policy Studies and Visakhapatnam Public Library, Justice Somayajulu traced the growth and role played by the Supreme Court during the last seven decades.
He referred to the important judgments in the initial period of the apex court and narrated how the concepts of fundamental rights and judicial review were treated in the earlier period and the later period.
Starting from the A.K. Gopalans case, Justice Somayajulu referred to the growth of the law by judicial interpretation leading up to the famous case of Kesavananda Bharati, wherein the basic structure doctrine was propounded.
He said that forward-looking interpretations led to the growth of law in the areas such as women’s rights and protection of women form sexual harassment. He said that the need for a solution and the need to address a problem led the Supreme Court to lay down guidelines for protection of women in the Visakha case. This was not judicial activism, but judicial action to solve an existing problem that needed an immediate solution.
He said that when there was executive or legislative inaction, the courts stepped in to give a solution, and immediately address the issue. He also referred to the human rights jurisprudence, the growth of Public Interest Litigation and the benefits from the same.
He said that even a letter or a post card was treated as a petition, and access to justice was now available to the poorest of the poor.
He referred to cases where compensation was paid for illegal police actions. He also referred to the incredible impact of PILs in protecting our environment and the principles of polluter pays and the public trust doctrines.
He concluded by saying that despite the criticism levelled, the judiciary was highly respected and the faith of the common man in the system was still not shaken. This was evident from the growing number of cases in courts.
G. Madhukumar, secretary LB College, from where Justice Somayajulu had graduated, mentioned how Justice Somayajulu inherited from his forbears four generations of judicial prowess. R. Venkata Rao, former Vice-Chancellor of National Law School of India University, and who was Justice Somayajulu’s teacher, also spoke.
Former Rector of Andhra University A. Prasanna Kumar presided over the meeting. D.S. Varma welcomed the gathering.
