Lawfully Yours: By Retired Justice K Chandru | Ambedkar was against abolishing Guv posts; never foresaw them turning Centre’s puppets

Even as arguments are being placed before the Supreme Court on whether the judiciary has stepped into the shoes of the legislative or not, as per the top court’s verdict, there are some glaring incidents of overreach of the Raj Bhavan. The Kerala Governor had issued a circular to state-run universities to observe the Partition Horrors’ Day, while the Tamil Nadu Governor has sent a bill seeking the renaming of a university to the President for assent. All this despite the SC verdict that Governors must function within the parameters of the Constitution. Given the kind of mess we are in, why do you think our constitutional experts have left a void in not mentioning a time frame for the Governor to act? How can it be that they won’t have foreseen such circumstances, given that Dr Ambedkar, the jurist-intellectual par excellence and the architect of the Constitution, also had waged a long, drawn-out war against Mahatma and the Congress over the shaping of the Indian polity?

— Maharajan, Chetpet, Chennai

Your queries are also covered in the President's reference to the Supreme Court, posing 14 questions for its advisory opinion. It is being heard by a five-judge bench headed by the present Chief Justice, BR Gavai, who incidentally is a staunch Ambedkarite. More than my reply, you will soon get an authoritative answer from the Constitution Bench itself.

Ambedkar was nominated to the Constituent Assembly by Congress Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. But for that party's support, the Constitution would not have come into existence. Further, in the Constituent Assembly, though there was a demand for the abolition of the post of governors, Dr Ambedkar was for its retention. But he never anticipated that future governors would be made puppets by the government at the Centre and would be used to destabilise an elected government formed by an opposition party.

————————————————————————————————————————

Family to be compensated for breadwinner's death involving negligence by the civic body

At times, the government is found wanting when it comes to compensating the kin of those who lost their lives due to official negligence. The same was the case in recent incidents of electrocution of pedestrians after stepping onto stagnant water in contact with severed electric wires. These deaths are happening due to the state's failures, and in many of the cases, the families concerned are losing their breadwinners. Is there anything the kin of these victims can do to get real justice?

— Paramasivam, Vyasarpadi

The Madras High Court (MHC) has been instrumental in ordering compensation in cases of accidental deaths due to civic body negligence, particularly by invoking the principle of "no-fault liability" through its writ jurisdiction. The first was the death of a child near housing board flats when it fell into an uncovered manhole on Lloyds Road and died. The second case was (argued by me) when a visually impaired school boy got electrocuted by touching a lamp post near the American Consulate. All this led to the government announcing solarium in such cases, but the amounts were not adequate. Ultimately, the government should compensate the victims’ families, and in case of the death of the breadwinner, it must also rehabilitate those families.