Govt will consider joint panel's views on land bill, says Gowda : The Times of India

The government may not need a joint sitting of Parliament to clear the land bill, feels Union law minister D V Sadananda Gowda. Speaking to TOI's Pradeep Thakur, Gowda outlined reasons the government remains optimistic about the issue and why he expects forward movement on GST. Excerpts

The judiciary is uneasy about government's intention on NJAC?

I am very particular as far as the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) is concerned. Appointment of judges is not an integral part of independence of judiciary . It is an executive function. Appointment of judges by judges is not proper. You can see, it finally goes through the PM to the President. As the matter is pending before the Supreme Court, I don't want to talk much about it but we have made it very clear there is no intention of the executive to have an upper hand as far as these appointments are concerned.

But the NJAC has executive presence and two members are from outside the judiciary...

The primacy of judiciary is kept high in the NJAC. The Chief Justice of India (CJI) will be presiding over the new panel, and two senior judges of the SC will be its members which (will) take their representation to 50%. There will be only the law minister from the executive. The two eminent persons in the panel will not be selected by the government. It will be a panel headed by PM with opposition leader and the CJI who will select them. At no point of time in democracy , has the ruling party and the opposition colluded...so no one can apprehend that executive will join hands and the judiciary will be kept out. I can assure you, there will be no foul play from the executive.

Is government ready for a joint sitting of Parliament on the land bill?

I don't think a situation like that will arise because already the matter is referred to the joint parliamentary committee. The committee will have parliamentarians from all major parties, and CMs have also been invited to give their views. A final report will be considered by Parliament, we have no ego problem there. For the development of the country , certain land need to be acquired and for that this act has to be amended.

What if the committee gives a report which is in conflict with the government's ordinance?

See, it is at the request of the ruling party that this issue has been referred to the joint committee. If we had any hesitation in accepting the recommendations of the panel, we would not have referred the matter to the committee.Our intention is to get more feedback and pass these amendments unanimously . If the entire committee is unanimous, why would we have objections? There are certain things that we need to consider in the larger interest of the country , but only after a discussion in the Cabinet.

Have you given up on Mandir (in Ayodhya) and Article 370 in J&K?

Sir, it is in the party agenda...In our manifesto we had promised to the people but a decision cannot be taken in a hurry . We have to discuss with all stakeholders and con vince those who are opposed to it. This will take time as it requires wider consultation.

But is it possible to achieve repeal of Art 370 and Mandir in five years of Modi Government?

That I can't predict. I can't give you a time frame.

What about difficulties on the GST bill?

The matter has already been referred to the select committee of Parliament. There has to be uniformity in tax administration across the country with a single tax structure. Once implemented, it will bring in more financial discipline. The bill was earlier moved by the UPA government and we are only taking it forward.

So, you think the UPA had taken some good decisions?

They just floated ideas, but we are taking them to their logical conclusions. See, on the land acquisition act we had supported the UPA at that time. But, all the CMs said it is not implementable. Since the implementation has to be done by the state governments and not by the Centre we have brought in these amendments. After objections received from states, Nitin Gadkariji convened meeting of the CMs and we are going ahead with their suggestions.