By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Friday dismissed again a public suit seeking direction to the union government to get parliamentary approval before firming up the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan dismissed the lawsuit, saying that the constitution does not provide for any legislative control over the government’s treaty making power with foreign countries.
“There is nothing in the constitution that prevents the government from signing a treaty (without approval of parliament),” said the bench, which also included Justice R.V. Raveendran.
The lawsuit was filed by Banglore-based lawyer M. Ravi Prakash, who had questioned the government’s power to sign a treaty with a foreign country without parliamentary approval.
“The treaty-making power and foreign affairs power is exclusively within the domain of parliament, therefore legislation is required before the proposed agreement for nuclear co-operation with the US which infringes on the sovereignty of the nation,” Ravi Prakash contended in his petition.
The bench, however, refused to buy his argument.
“Hundreds of treaties are being signed by the government. Is there any provision which prevents the government from entering into it?” it asked.
“In all treaties like WTO, GATT or others you surrender some rights and gain some rights,” the bench observed when the advocate said that the country would lose its power to conduct nuclear tests after entering into the nuclear deal.
The court earlier had dismissed two similar petitions that had sought to restrain the government from going ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal on the ground that these were “policy matters” and it could not examine them.