Farmers groups move SC against land ordinance

New Delhi, April 9: A group of farmers' organisations moved the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking the repromulgated land ordinance to be quashed on the grounds of its being ultra vires of the Constitution and restraining the government from enforcing it. The Bharatiya Kishan Union, Delhi Grameen Samaj, Gram Sewa Samiti and Chogama Vikas Avam said, "The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, is unconstitutional, null and void and ultra vires Articles 14 and 123 of the Constitution of India and hence void ab initio". The petitioner organisations also sought the apex court's direction restraining the government from "acting upon" the ordinance. The petitioners contended that the action of the government in re-promulgating the ordinance was malafide and thus open to challenge. The discretionary power of the president to promulgate ordinances has to be "exercised judiciously and with in the strict paradigm of the circumstances, circumscribing the exercise of such discretion under Article 123", the organisations said. The law making function under the Constitution was vested in parliament, the petitioner organisations contended. They said, "If the executive was permitted to continue the provisions of an ordinance by issuing successive ordinances without submitting the same to the voice of parliament, it is nothing but usurpation by the executive of the law making powers of the legislature".