The Union government on Wednesday closed its arguments on presidential reference on 2G case judgement of the Supreme Court with the attorney-general pleading a constitution bench to clarify whether the verdict makes the auction of all natural resources mandatory and whether the apex court has overstepped its jurisdiction in giving direction on a policy matter.
“It is not for this court (SC) to determine the relative merit of different polices. While the court can strike down a law on the ground of want of authority, it will not sit in appeal over the matters of policy,” AG Goolam E. Vahanvati argued before a bench of CJI S.H. Kapadia and Justices D.K. Jain, J.S. Khehar, Dipak Misra and Ranjan Gogoi.
He said the court was not the forum where the “conflicting” claims on policy issues could be debated. “Whether a policy followed by the government or propounded by the Opposition may reasonably attain the national objectives; but they are matters which have little relevance in determining the legality of the measures,” he said.
On the question of “public trust” doctrine propounded in the 2G verdict to emphasise the auction of natural resources by stating that the government was only a “trustee” of people and has no unfettered right to allocate them on its “whims and fancies”, the AG said “extension of public trust doctrine to all natural resources in the judgement has led to considerable confusion and needs to be clarified by the SC.”
AG, who argued at length during past three days devoting several hours on defining the natural resources, said a “common yardstick” of auction could not be laid down.
Since the most common distinction between different types of natural resources was between renewable and non-renewable, there were several factors which needed to be taken into consideration while formulating any policy for their allocation. “Revenue generation is one factor but it is not the only factor,” Mr Vahanvati submitted.
He said when it comes to disposing of the land and property and the aim was to secure the best market price, “auction may the best route”. But revenue generation “cannot be the sole consideration in allocation of natural resources. There are complex policy and developmental issues which may have to be kept in mind in the larger perspective of the national development.”