New Delhi, July 15 Former Supreme Court judge Justice (retired) Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Tuesday called for restraint in taking battles over political issues to courts and wished the tussle over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar electoral roll could be settled at the level of the Election Commission, without requiring the intervention of the apex court.
“Political battles should be settled in a political manner. The court is not a forum to settle political problems,” Justice (retd) Kaul told IANS.
“The Supreme Court cannot do everything. It cannot make policies. It cannot do the work of the Election Commission. The court’s job is to maintain checks and balances,” he said.
The former Supreme Court judge added that there is no harm in approaching the apex court if an issue with legal ramifications is involved, but in other matters, the designated institutions should be petitioned to address grievances.
“Different institutions have been formed for different things. The Election Commission is a constitutional institution. If there is a legal infirmity in any process, then only there should be interference by the court,” he said.
Justice Kaul said the tendency among political parties to drag issues over their differences to court is more visible in the Supreme Court.
He said that in such a situation, it should be the Supreme Court’s discretion as to which matter it should hear and which it should not.
“The Supreme Court cannot do everything. It cannot make policies. It cannot do the work of the Election Commission. The work of the court is to maintain checks and balances,” he said.
Justice Kaul also hinted at the need for taking a balanced stand on the issue of fair conduct of elections, adding that unfavourable results of a few polls should not lead parties to accuse the EC of bias.
In an indirect reference to the Opposition parties’ allegations of ‘election fixing’ against the EC, he said, “These differences are political. Nowadays, politics has become such that the middle path has become very difficult. People have different views.”
“I do not doubt that the election system works. It's due to the work of the same Election Commission, opposition parties win in many states. Opposition parties have been winning continuously in Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The BJP is also a ruling party, and it will also win. It cannot be said that if I win, then it is okay, if I don't win, then there is some problem,” said Justice Kaul.
The Opposition parties have slammed the ongoing SIR in Bihar, claiming that it is being conducted in a rush and with documentation requirements that could disenfranchise a sizeable number of the 7.9 crore voters in the state.
The ECI has countered the allegations and maintained that Enumeration Forms (EFs) of 83.66 per cent of the 7.89 crore Bihar voters have already been collected till Monday, and with 11 more days left for the last date of submission of the filled forms, the exercise would be completed smoothly.
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