Chaini Parwani-
Published On: December 07, 2021 at 13:00 IST
The Supreme Court on Monday directed that the Cardinal Rule for the Courts is not to interfere with the Government’s Economic and Regulatory Policies.
The pronouncement came after almost a week since the President and the Prime Minister exhibited distress over repeated involvement in Policy Decisions by the Judiciary.
A Bench comprising of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Vikram Nath and B V Nagarathna while upholding an Order of the Reserve Bank of India observed that the deference of the RBI to the Government Policy banning export of PPEs was justified as it was in the Public Interest to stop shortage of PPEs during the Pandemic.
The Order came into light when RBI denied permission to an Indian merchant, Akshay N Patel, from entering into an Agreement to facilitate export of Chinese-made PPEs to US.
It was highlighted that exports from a foreign country to yet another country may not have caused shortage of PPEs in India but would surely have depleted the stocks in the world, which could have been grabbed by rich countries for hoarding and reduced India’s share to import PPEs.
Further Justice Chandrachud scrutinized in detail the Regulatory Role of RBI in connection with the Economic as well as Regulatory Policies of the Government to refine the role of the Constitutional Courts in Matters involving such Policies.
Furthermore, the Bench stated, the Constitutional Courts must be circumspect that “The Rights and Freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution do not become a weapon in the arsenal of private businesses to disable regulation enacted in the Public Interest.”