Supreme Court

Following the Supreme Court order quashing the allocation of 214 coal blocks the Modi Government seems to have decided to promulgate an ordinance empowering the government to take back these coal blocks and reallocate them to private entities through an e-auction.This completely nullifies the coal nationalization Act of 1973. Coal was nationalised as a precious national asset required for the country’s development especially to provide energy resources to the people. By an open market e-auction this objective would be negated. In any case such a decision cannot be taken unless the parliament enacts a legislation nullifying the 1973 Act.

The views expressed by Supreme Court Justice A.R. Dave about the teaching of the Gita and the Mahabaratha in schools, is improper and unwarranted. What Justice Dave has advocated is religious instruction in all schools from Class I. Compulsory religious instruction in government schools violates the basic secular principle enshrined in the Constitution.

The Supreme Court judgment to include a “No Vote” on the ballot is only a minor aspect of the issue of reforms. These matters are being dealt with in a piecemeal way by the judiciary when what is required is comprehensive electoral reforms including the issue of proportional representation, urgent steps to curb money and muscle power, which must be discussed and adopted by Parliament.

The Polit Bureau welcomes the judgement of the Supreme Court that the Aadhar Unique Identity cannot be made mandatory for receiving social benefit schemes. The government has been illegally instituting the cash transfer schemes and identification of beneficiaries of social welfare schemes based on the Aadhar identity.

The information available from the documents available from the Supreme Court ordered investigation into the Gujarat carnage in February 2002, provide clinching evidence of the deliberate refusal of the Modi Government to act to prevent the mass violence against the minority community....