Cong wants Govt to consult States: 9th Schedule

New Delhi, Jan 12 (UNI) The Congress today called upon the Central Government to study and analyse in depth the long and detailed judgement of the Supreme Court on the Ninth Schedule and initiate the process of eliciting the views of the States on the subject.

''We hope the Government will start a broad and wide ranging exchange of views with the States immediately,'' Congress Spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said briefing mediapersons here.

As a responsible party,the Congress was studying and analysing alanysing the judgement, he said in reply to a question, adding that without a wide ranging discussion, no final decision could be taken about the further course of action following the judgement.

Asked to give his opinion as a lawyer about the further course of action open in the light of the judgment, Mr Singhvi said a review petition could be filed in the Supreme Court. In the event of dismissal of such a petition, a "curative petition" could be filed.

A curative petition, he explained, could be filed by an agarieved party after disposal of the main petition and review petition as an extremely rare case if he felt that some point involved in the petition had not been addressed by the Supreme Court.

Replying to a question, Mr Singhvi pointed out that the Supreme Court had not touched upon Tamil Nadu or any particular state while giving its verdict.

He pointed out that starting with the Keshvanand Bharati case, some judicial review had always been there by the Supreme Court if the basic structure of the Constitution was involved.

UNI