Kapil Sibal cites UK Supreme Court's verdict, says no scrutiny of bills in India
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New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Wednesday cited the UK Supreme Court's verdict to claim that in India there is no scrutiny of bills and it is a wake up call for the courts.
Attacking the Modi government, Sibal said it is adopting different ways to silence the opposition that includes the Income Tax scrutiny against Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa's family, against whom notices have been sent, and Enforcement Directorate (ED) action against NCP leader Sharad Pawar.
The senior Congress leader said in India there is no scrutiny as bills are passed as 'money bills' and some key acts like the abrogation of Article 370 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) have been passed without proper scrutiny.
Citing the UK Supreme Court's verdict, Sibal said executive power cannot silence legislative scrutiny.
In a body blow for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the UK Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that his controversial move to suspend Parliament in the run-up to Brexit was "unlawful".
"UK Supreme Court : Executive power can't silence Legislative scrutiny. In India no scrutiny of : 1) Clearly not 'Money Bills'. 2) UAPA; Amending Art. 370 etc. Other ways to silence opposition: Latest: Lavasa's family; Sharad Pawar. A wake up call for Courts!," he tweeted.
Earlier, another Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had said that the significance of UK Supreme Court's judgement for those of us who live in other parliamentary systems inspired by the British model should not be missed.
"The judgement makes clear that the leeway for the political executive to subvert convention is limited: the executive cannot simply distort the rules of procedure&conduct of business under the garb of the Parliament's privilege as a sovereign body to do as it wants. The Court's reasoning is that the executive's legislative majority cannot be used to obstruct Parliament's work," he tweeted.
"To put it bluntly, the executive, in the name of its Parliamentary majority, cannot use Parliament's own powers and privileges to undermine itself. In short, Parliament cannot be induced by its own majority to commit suicide. Note: UK precedents are often cited by Indian courts," he also said.
