SC blames govt for abuse of discretionary powers

In 1976,a five-judge Constitution Bench had upheld the Indira Gandhi’ government’s decision to suspend the fundamental rights.

“Yes,the worse has come from here(apex court). It started in the 70s…in 1976,then again in 1986 the Maruti Udyog discretionary allotments to the President,Prime Minister,Lok Sabha Speaker and even the judges themselves which was upheld in the judgement,” the bench remarked.

The bench made the remarks after senior counsel and former union minister Ravishankar Prasad submitted that there was a decline in the values of all institutions including the Supreme Court.

“The Supreme Court of today is not what it was 50 years ago,” he said when the bench was expressing its ire at the abuse of discretionary powers by government functionaries.

The apex court said the common man who abides by the law today feels that he is a “fool” as bureacrats,MPs and MLAs abuse discretionary powers enjoyed by them.

“The man who abides by the law feels he is a fool. Every person who has the discretionary power has abused it. They may be MPs/MLAs. We are not referring to any party,” the bench remarked.

The bench’s remarks came during the hearing of PIL challenging allotment of 39 acres of prime land in Bhopal city by Madhya Pradesh’s BJP government in 2006 to Kushabhai Thakre Training Institution named after the late BJP leader.