Date:04/06/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/06/04/stories/2005060401531300.htm

National

Krishna Iyer criticises ruling on Coke plant

Special Correspondent

"I suspect the wisdom and constitutionality of the judgment''

KOCHI: The former Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, has observed that "`Coca-Cola' as law has made an imbroglio of our writ jurisdiction and jurisprudence." On Wednesday, a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court in Kochi directed the president of the Perumatty panchayat to renew in a week the licence granted earlier to the Coca-Cola company's plant at Plachimada in Palakkad district.

In a statement, the eminent jurist said:

"I have great respect for the judiciary, of which I have been a member both in Kerala and in the apex court. But non-criticism of judicial pronouncements when one considers them as aberrational is a failure of a jurist's duty to the Constitution and the non-exercise of the fundamental right of freedom of expression. We are governed by the Constitution, but it has been said that the Constitution is what the judges say it is. This does not mean that the `robed brethren' can ... reduce the law to mere judicial ipse dixits.

"I suspect the wisdom and constitutionality of the Coca-Cola judgment recently pronounced by a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court. Maybe I am wrong, or maybe the concerned judges are in error. When licence has been refused for Coca-Cola by a local authority, which is necessary under municipal law, the court cannot hold that, in certain circumstances, the licence may be deemed to have been granted, thus nullifying the statute...

"I have not had the time to investigate dialectically the many dimensions of this pronouncement. I must also confess that I have not fully investigated how, in the face of an earlier decision, a fresh case was instituted before a different bench. This calls for a closer study of the procedure adopted and the substantive law declared... In short, `Coca-Cola' as law has made an imbroglio of our writ jurisdiction and jurisprudence.''

Noting that he was sure that in India today, "the one high institution which holds aloft people's confidence is the judiciary,'' Justice Krishna Iyer quoted from the Bible: "Ye, are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?"