New Delhi: The Supreme Court, which is examining the scope of judicial review of laws in the Constitution’s Ninth Schedule, on Thursday said it was not examining the validity of a Tamil Nadu Act which provides 69 per cent quota and is in the Ninth Schedule.
"No individual Acts are being examined. We will take care," a nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal said when senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani expressed his apprehension in this regard.
Jethmalani said the Bench cannot decide whether the Tamil Nadu Act breached a basic feature of the Constitution. The court cannot judge on the state government’s belief that the Act empowers weaker sections of society and did not violate basic features of the Constitution.
"On the contrary it (the Act) strengthens the basic features of the Constitution which is to make unequal equal by raising their educational, social and economic standards," he told the Bench, also comprising justices Ashok Bhan, Arijit Pasayat, B P Singh, S H Kapadia, C K Thakker, P K Balasubramanyan, Altamas Kabir and D K Jain.
"The Constitution was created by the people and their representatives. Though the judges have a very important role to play in a written constitution, particularly one that contains basic rights of the citizens, yet they are creatures of the constitution and not the masters of it,” he said.
The Bench is examining whether a law put in the Ninth Schedule escapes the scope of judicial review even if it destroys the basic structure of the Constitution. The Tamil Nadu Act put in the Ninth Schedule has been challenged as it did not exclude creamy layer and exceeds the benchmark of 50 per cent.
Senior advocate T R Andhyarujina, who argued for the state government, said the representatives of the people must not be accused of irresponsibility when a law is put in Ninth Schedule.
Maintaining that no assumption could be made that the law put in the Ninth Schedule will be misused, he said though most of the Acts in this regard were related to land reforms but in respect of other Acts it cannot be said that they are oppressive or destroy the personal liberties of citizens.
"Parliament can be entrusted with the power to insert Acts in the Ninth Schedule and not to misuse the power as indeed it has not done so far," he said.
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