Case of fixing salaries of Consumer forum referred to CJ

New Delhi, May 25 (UNI) Due to serious differences between them, two judges of the Supreme Court have referred the matter of fixing adequate salaries and allowances for the members of consumer forum at all three levels to the Chief Justice of India, K G Balakrishnan, for allotting it to another bench.

A bench comprising Justices S B Sinha and Markandey Katju concurred on the point that the salaries of the judges of consumer fora at all three levels namely district, state and national consumer commission should be enhanced adequately and also to fill up the vacancies expeditiously so that the fora can function effectively, but the judges had serious differences on the approach of the court towards such issues.

Presiding judge Justice Sinha was of the opinion that courts could interfere when the executive or the legislature failed to perform their duties while Justice Katju is of the opinion that the judges must follow the doctrine of judicial restraint and judiciary should not try to legislate and must keep itself confined to the task of interpreting a law and not to make a law.

Justice Katju in his separate judgement noted ''under our constitution the judiciary, the legislature and the executive have their own broad spheres of operation.'' ''It is important that these organs do not encroach on each other's proper spheres and confine themselves to their own, otherwise there will always be a danger of a reaction. Of the three organs of the state , it is only the judiciary which has the right to determine the limits of jurisdiction of all these organs. This great power must therefore, be exercised by the judiciary with the utmost humility and self-restraint. The judiciary must therefore, exercise self-restraint and eschew the temptation to encroach into the domain of the legislature or the administrative or statutory authority.'' ''The court may feel that the law needs to be amended but on this