The Supreme Court of India is the country’s apex court and the final place for an appeal. Its judgments are binding on all other courts, and it serves as the final interpreter of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court came into existence on 26 January 1950, the day the Constitution came into force. The first Chief Justice of the Supreme court was Justice H.J. Kania. Consisting of the Chief Justice of India and 30 other judges, it has extensive powers in the form of original, appellate and advisory jurisdictions. As the final court of appeal, the Supreme Court takes up appeals primarily against verdicts of the high courts of various states of the Union and other courts and tribunals. It safeguards fundamental rights of citizens and settles disputes between various governments in the country.
One such foolish order was about the banning of more than 10 year old diesel vehicles in the NCR .
10 years is an arbitrary date. Either diesel is carcinogenic or it is not.
Secondly for this order to be effective it is essential that the MV ACT of all NCR states should be amended. As far as I actually ascertained even till end 2018 other than may be Delhi ,no other state had amended its Act to issue RC for 10 years. Despite the NGT and Supreme Court ruling the RC for a diesel vehicle was valid for 15 years and the State Governments were charging , at least Haryana was, one time charge for 15 years.
This only led to harrassment of owners of such vehicles.
I disagree with the tenor of the article in placing the blame for nothing good happening to air quality in Delhi at the doors of courts, activists and litigants. After all courts didn’t ask for some one to file a petition. Concerned citizen has no pleasure in pursuing a thankless litigation. But it is because those entrusted with doing what they should don’t do it that these have to intervene. Let us say (for a minute imagine) we are law abiding, rule of law prevails. Then if cracker sale is banned no one would sell and that much less cracker would go up in smoke and that much air quality would improve. But, no, we enjoy breaking the law at the first opportunity we get, rule of law ki eisi ki taisi. Now, suddenly the law becomes bad, law maker becomes bad. This is not done.
bhure lal as EPCA chief and sunita narain as DG is like combining Laattoo Shah (of the DDCA) and Justic Lodha —
oligarchic ; expensive; ineffectual.
I agree especially with the bit about “courts getting off the kerb”. Courts will do better with doing what they are mandated to do by the constitution. One word of advice for activists too. Instead of rushing to court with their frivolous PIL they would better approach governments or sit on Dharanas. These elites with deep pockets to pay for hiring senior advocates in SC must realise that for every frivolous PIL they file they delay the justice for some innocent rotting in jails or some victims waiting for justice years on.
Instead of doing all these, why not give a thought to shift national capital to other place along with supreme court premises. This will solve the problem to maximum extent and i think it will be cost effective also.
I think its worth giving a thought!
Karna toh hum sab ko padega, aur bahut kuchh, bina vilamb. A full blown health crisis is upon us, most visibly in Delhi. India is losing 2.5 million citizens prematurely each year to pollution. Many more must be suffering, losing economic output and quality of life. 2. Not a job for the judiciary, although some of its interventions have been very useful. It is for the executive, working with the legislature, to assess what the environmental consequences of $ 6 trillion in GDP will be, how we can get there without our lungs seizing up. Citizens will have to modify lifestyles, out of conviction and responsibility rather than just executive or judicial fiat. 3. A permanent, nationwide ban on fircrackers would have great symbolic value, like Mahatma Gandhi picking up a lump of salt.