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SORRY STATE OF AFFAIRS: LACK OF QUALITY DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT, SAYS CJI RAMANA

Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana on Sunday expressed his dismay over the lack of quality debates in Parliament due to which the courts are unable to fathom the intent and object behind the new laws. Speaking at an event to mark Independence Day at the Supreme Court, the CJI said that earlier debates […]

Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana on Sunday expressed his dismay over the lack of quality debates in Parliament due to which the courts are unable to fathom the intent and object behind the new laws. Speaking at an event to mark Independence Day at the Supreme Court, the CJI said that earlier debates in the Parliament used to be “very wise” and “constructive” as compared to the “sorry state of affairs” now.

“If you see the debates which used to take place in Houses in those days, they used to be very wise, constructive and they used to debate any legislation they were making… Now, it is a sorry state of affairs. We see the legislations–lot of gaps, a lot of ambiguity in making laws,” said CJI Ramana.

The CJI said that the absence of quality debate leads to a lot of litigation, and “the courts, in the absence of quality debate, are unable to fathom the intent and object behind the new law”.

“There’s no clarity in laws. We don’t know for what purpose the laws are made. It’s creating a lot of litigation, inconvenience, and loss to the government as well as inconvenience to the public,” he stated.

He added that situations like this happen when “intellectuals and professionals like lawyers aren’t there in Houses”. He also urged the lawyer community to rededicate themselves to public life and bring change in parliamentary debates.

“If we look at our freedom fighters, many of them were also in the legal fraternity. The first members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were filled with the lawyers’ community,” CJI Ramana said.

“Debates back then in the Houses were very constructive. I saw the debates over financial bills and very constructive points were made. Laws were discussed and deliberated. One had a clear picture of the legislative part of the law,” he said.

Responding to this, in a series of tweets, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju blamed the Opposition for the lack of debates and discussions in Parliament. “I can understand the deep concern of the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramanna about the lack of quality debate in Parliament. When I first entered Parliament, I learnt a lot from the seniors. Now, young MPs are being told to stop Parliament debate,” he tweeted.

Rijiju added, “What’s more shocking is that there is chest-thumping by opposition MPs who openly boasted that they had blocked & stopped Parliament Session. They behaved very rudely, resorted to physical force and used unparliamentary language, degrading the status of ‘Temple of Democracy’.”

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