No institution should cross the line, Sharma on SC's FDI query

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SME Times News Bureau | 24 Jan, 2013
In yet another example of tangle between the executive and the judiciary, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, while reacting to the Supreme Court's recent query on the Centre's foreign direct policy in retail, said that "all institutions" should respect the lines.

"It is important that all institutions respect the constitutional demarcation between Executive, Legislation and Judiciary," Sharma who is in Davos to attend the World Economic Forum, said Wednesday in a press statement.

The commerce minister's comment came a day after a Supreme Court bench of Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya, had asked the central government to file its response to a petition filed by advocate M.L. Sharma claiming that the entry of the multi-national companies would hurt the livelihood of 35 crore Indians.

According to Sharma, as the Indian economy is passing through a difficult phase, it is important to maintain balance among the three arms of the state.

"Any alteration of this balance which confuses the global investors who are keen to invest in India which leads to job creation, technology upgradation and infrastructure expansion is better avoided," he argued.

"Have you brought FDI as a political gimmick or has it borne any fruits," the apex court bench had asked the Centre on Tuesday.

In a similar executive-judiciary clash, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2010, while referring to a Supreme Court order to distribute rotting grain to the poor, said that the courts should not get into the "realm of policy formulation".