Mr. Kapil Sibal, Member of Parliament, Indian National Congress, stressed the need for overhaul of the governance system by highlighting the prevalent trust deficit between judiciary and executive in appointment of judges and burgeoning pending cases. He was speaking at the Session ‘Executive, Legislature & Judiciary: Tripod of Effective Governance’ at the Annual Session of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi. Mr Sibal also stressed the need for debate for enactment of comprehensive & robust laws.
Mr. N K Singh, former MP, highlighted that parliamentary compulsions of priorities detract from holistic policy formulation. The permanence of the civil service establishment often overlooks the best quality of people to lead domain specific initiatives, he added. In the judiciary, it is in fact the Government which is the principal litigant. Some of the recently appointed regulatory frameworks, for example, electricity & telecom could be role models for policy formulation, he noted.
Mr. Fali Nariman, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, emphasized that checks & balances are inlaid in the Constitution including the office of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), an institution older than Indian Parliament and custodian of Consolidated Fund of India (CFI). He also suggested abolition of Article 226 for power of High Courts to issue writs which is one of the causes for overlitigation.
Mr. Adi Godrej, Past President, CII flagged off some of the contemporary issues including, power abuse, debate between inclusive legislation and legislative sanctity, parliamentary accountability and oft-quoted judicial intervention. He emphasized that the need of the hour was efficient, effective & transparent policy formulation to achieve the desired inclusive reforms.
The session emphasized that there is too much power concentrated in the hands of the executive arm that needs to be revisited. This becomes even more important as country requires Maximum Governance rather than Maximum Government. The recent introduction of Aadhar Bill in the 'Money Bill' category was quoted as a leading example. Technology as an enabler and an increasing interdependent India will promote inclusive policy formulation.
New Delhi
29 April 2017