The Rajasthan High Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre and the State government on a batch of writ petitions challenging a controversial Ordinance that protects serving and former judges and public servants from being investigated for on-duty action without prior sanction from the State government.
The court asked the governments to submit their replies in four weeks.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Deepak Maheshwari clubbed all the seven writ petitions and posted the matter for further hearing on November 27. The petitioners included Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot, Aam Aadmi Party leader Poonam Chand Bhandari and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).
The petitioners have sought quashing of the Ordinance with the contention that it infringes upon the constitutional rights of the citizens and will encourage corruption.
Issuing the notices, the court directed that a copy of the order be served to State Advocate General Narpat Mal Lodha and Additional Solicitor General Rajdeepak Rastogi.
Direct attack on media
The AAP’s petition stated that the Ordinance had “virtually armed the government with unbridled power” and its promulgation amounted to a direct attack on the media. It said the Ordinance had “stultified judicial scrutiny and determination of allegation against corrupt officials”, leading to erosion of legitimacy of the judicial institution.
Mr. Pilot’s petition contended that the Ordinance had created an unwarranted requirement of prior sanction for investigation without any rationale and stood in violation of Article 14 (equality before law) of the Constitution. The Ordinance had also brought about superiority of the executive over the judiciary, where the magisterial discretion under the Criminal Procedure Code was “subverted by executive whims”.
“The Ordinance effectively draws an iron curtain on the workings of the government,” said the petition. To the Court’s pointed query about any specific instances of cases not being filed because of the order, petitioner Bhagwat Gaur’s counsel A.K. Jain cited two cases involving a top officer in Jaipur and a civic body in which the court could not order filing of FIR in the absence of prior sanction.
There was no reporting of these cases in the media because of the Ordinance, said Mr. Jain.
