‘Courts cannot run government, judges cannot legislate’, say AP MLAs

VIJAYAWADA: The AP Assembly started a discussion on ‘decentralized development in AP’ here on Thursday, a day when the proceedings were smooth in the absence of the Opposition MLAs. The subject of discussion had a direct bearing on the high court order against the state's three capitals formula.

Earlier, the Jagan government withdrew the Three Capitals bill. YSR Congress legislators said there was no need for giving a verdict on the act that was no more in force.

Asserting the legislative competence and its policy-making power, the assembly sent out a message that the legislature, executive and judiciary should play their intended roles without interfering with the domains of others. The will of people will reflect in the mandate, based on which the government takes policy decisions.

Initiating the debate on legislative competence, MLA Dharmana Prasada said courts should not interfere in the functioning of the legislative system. The systems of judiciary, executive, and legislative systems should operate only within their domains.

“We chose democracy as a form of government and many great people were behind the making of the Indian Constitution,” he said.

Citing Supreme Court judgements about judicial restraint and judicial activism, the MLA criticised the AP high court’s remark that “a change in government need not give rise to a change in policy,” and stressed that “it is the people’s mandate that has brought in the legislators to make laws, which no other domain can do.”

The MLA asserted that courts cannot run the government and judges cannot legislate. He reminded one and all about the dictums given by the Supreme Court on earlier occasions, saying “Judicial activism can act as an unguided missile.”

“If we cannot make or change policies, why do we need elections every five years,” he asked.

Continuing the discussion, MLA Kolusu Parthasarathy came down heavily on the Opposition leaders “who trashed the concept of decentralization and the three capitals issue for the sake of political gains by dragging the matter into legal tangles.”

He said the previous TD government had estimated a spend of one lakh crore rupees for developing basic infrastructure for the capital city. Such a huge spend for one city could hamper the development of other regions of the state,” he said.

Parthasarathy said the three capitals issue has been dragged into a legal tangle by vested interests by questioning the legislative competence of the elected government. The concept of decentralization was proposed to fulfill the aspirations of all three regions, the idea being to specially to develop Rayalaseema and North Andhra districts that were neglected for decades, he said.