NEW DELHI: Appointed by Tamil Nadu as head of a high-level committee to discover methods & means for larger autonomy for states in a federal governance construction, Justice Kurian Joseph on Wednesday mentioned the endeavour could be to seek out options inside constitutional parameters and with out compromising the nation’s unity and integrity.
Justice Joseph, who retired from the Supreme Court docket in Nov 2018 after spending greater than 18 years as a decide of constitutional courts, instructed TOI that the difficulty had been the subject material of debate proper from the Nineteen Seventies, resulting in establishing of Sarkaria Fee in 1983 to look at the Centre-state relationship and stability of energy between the Centre and states.
In its 1988 report, the Sarkaria Fee had given 247 suggestions, together with larger monetary autonomy for states and appointment of neutral governors. In 2007, the UPA govt had arrange one other panel headed by former CJI M M Punchhi to evaluation the functioning of preparations between the Centre and states and had really useful reforms in utilizing Article 356 to dismiss state govts, appointment of governors and strengthening of inter-state council for higher Centre-state relations.
Justice Joseph mentioned, “Given the long-standing debate on Centre-state sharing of energy and the tussle over funds, which stay roughly unresolved, and the truth that the function of governors continues to stay a thorn in Centre-state relations, particularly in gentle of the current SC judgment on Tamil Nadu governor’s actions on payments handed by the meeting, a even handed research of constitutional provisions has turn out to be crucial and options to oft-repeated grievances of states should be sought.”
Requested whether or not the committee would look into the rising tendency of insisting that individuals of different states working in a selected state ought to use the native language for day-to-day communication, he Justice Joseph smiled and mentioned, “Appointment of an individual who hails from Kerala as the pinnacle of the committee ought to allay that apprehension.”
Born into a big household managed by the modest revenue of his father serving as a clerk in Kerala HC, Justice Joseph was appointed as a decide of that HC in 2000. He used to go to high school barefoot until Class 7.
He turned a decide of the SC in 2013 and in 2018 participated within the press convention with three different judges led by Justice J Chelameswar to protest then CJI Dipak Misra’s alleged allotment of delicate circumstances to “pliant” junior judges.
He mentioned he accepted the Tamil Nadu task on one situation – not a single penny could be paid as payment or remuneration. “I stand by the promise I had made after retiring from the SC that post-retirement, I’d not settle for any govt job,” he mentioned.