Can’t monitor Parliament: Supreme Court

New Delhi: Judiciary cannot monitor the business of Parliament as doing so would be “overstepping” its boundary and crossing the ‘lakshman rekha’, the Supreme Court observed on Thursday while dismissing a petition seeking guidelines to ensure uninterrupted functioning of Parliament.

“We cannot monitor Parliament. The Speaker of the House knows how to manage the function of the House. We should know our ‘lakshman rekha’. We should never cross the ‘lakshman rekha’.

We should not be overstepping our boundary to say Parliament be conducted in this manner and not in that manner. No, we cannot say,” the bench said. Further, it said, “in democracy, the parliamentarians know how to function. We are not here to teach them. They know better,” the bench said while rejecting a public interest litigation (PIL) of NGO, Foundation for Restoration of National Values.

The PIL said over the last six Parliament sessions, nearly 2,162 hours of business have been lost. Seeking guidelines from the apex court, it said that in the absence of a law, there is total vacuum to deal with the issue of non-functioning of Parliament as was witnessed in the recent Monsoon Session when large part of the proceedings were washed out due to opposition protests.

“Sustained disruptions, unruly protests” and abstentions by elected members have led to losses to the public exchequer, the PIL contended. Making it clear that it cannot intervene on such issues, the court said, “We cannot start advising Parliament and they know what they have to do.