SC judge takes a swipe at govt on 'judicial overreach' issue

Thakur is tipped to be the next Chief Justice of India

In unusually blunt remarks, a senior Supreme Court judge on Sunday criticised the government for describing judicial decisions as “overreach”, saying those were taken with the aim of protecting the environment and the judiciary is not against infrastructure development.

Judge T S Thakur said, “This country knows that if there is a movement for the protection of environment today, it is spearheaded by the judiciary alone.”

He added the judiciary sometimes does transgress the lakshman rekha but only with the aim of protecting the environment and the right to life of people of this country, as guaranteed under the Constitution.

Thakur was responding to remarks made by Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal, at a conference here, that the government has to ensure adequate job opportunities and simultaneously ensure this economic development is not at the cost of environment degradation.

“However, it is very important to understand that sometime a judicial overreach or sensationalisation of a particular subject can cause more damage than growth,” Goyal remarked.

The minister said, “I believe pragmatic judicial review of the restrictions is necessary. It is the need of the hour to come to terms with whether our actions are to ostensibly save the environment.”

Thakur, who is tipped to be the next Chief Justice of India in December, cited the example of government pronouncements on cleaning of Ganga over the years.

"For 20 years the government has been cleaning Ganga and we all know the condition of the holy river after the campaign started, thousands of crores have gone down in the project."

He added, it is a political slogan which catches votes and we all know that this can go on for another 20 years.

Taking a jibe at the government over pollution of river Yamuna, Thakur said, "SG (Solicitor General) who is the conscience keeper in the environmental matters made an honest confession here that there is H2 (hydrogen) but not O (oxygen) in the water of the Yamuna."

He said that if the judiciary orders cleaning up of these rivers it is described as guilty of 'judicial overreach'.

Thakur said, "We are not at cross purpose, you (government) want the environment to be clean, we also want the environment to be clean."

He added that the government wants enforcement of laws and so does the judiciary.

"You may like laws to be interpreted the way your perception is, we are also under the oath to ensure that laws are interpreted according to the constitutional scheme," he said adding that the judiciary is open to correction.