Governance must be left to those elected to govern: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday said that he has "great respect" for the judiciary, but governance must be left to those elected to govern.

He referred to the Constitution as prepared by the "founding fathers" and praised it for having a defined "power structure".

"We have great respect for judiciary... They have strengthened the whole foundations of our democratic polity," Prasad said here on the second day of a two-day seminar held by the National Human Rights Commission on good governance, development and human rights.

"But, we must leave the governance to those who are elected to govern. Legislation must be left to those who are elected to legislate," he added.

The law and justice minister said he held that view because of a 'recent' tendency seen in the judiciary to overreach.

"Of late, I'm seeing a propensity of certain courts to take over the government... They (judiciary) must hold the Executive accountable by contempt. They must have the right to set right the errant politicians. These are the powers of judiciary and they must be recognised... (but) they must be hold accountable to their powers," he said.

Prasad said that governance and accountability go hand-in-hand and that one just cannot take over governance and "not be accountable".

"Accountability is an integral part of governance," he said.

He said that the concept of "digital spread" was to ensure an "accountable, participatative and transparent India".

-- IANS

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