Judiciary has no business to oppose quota legislations: CPI

New Delhi, Aug 14 (UNI) The Communist Party of India(CPI) today hit out at courts for questioning legislations on reservation passed by Parliament, stating that the existing composition of the judiciary was a hitch in furthering social justice.

The party demanded reservation in judiciary and also radical land reforms for economic empowerment of dalits, saying the process of economic development was leading to economic untouchability of dalits .

Taking part in the discussion on the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2007 in the Rajya Sabha, senior CPI leader D Raja said Parliament was supreme, so the courts should not come in the way of implementation of the reservation legislations approved by it.

It would be unfortunate if one could not implement the policy okayed by the country's supreme legislature.

In fact, he said, there was an urgent need of reservation in judiciary to make sure that the cause of social justice was not defeated.

He also said that it would have also to be seen how the existing quota policy was being implemented and how far it had benefited the targeted persons.

The Communist leader demanded radical land reforms. Dalits should have land to be self-reliant. The process of economic development had already sidelined them and if large chunks of land continued to be in the hands of a few, their pauperisation would further increase, he said.

The CPI leader also urged the Government to take note of the lack of housing for these sections.

Mr Raja said it was unfortunate that even 60 years after independence, dalits were leading a miserable life. There were some laws like POA Act etc, but it had to be deeply studied how they were being implemented ''If India wants to emerge as a modern nation, it has to address the Dalit question,'' he added.

When he tried to talk of demand for dalit Christians and dalit Muslims, BJP Members tried to shout him down, on which Mr Raja said, ''the Members should not try to stop others from speaking on people they were not bothered about.'' He said the Bill addressed only limited concerns of dalits, and there was the need of taking a comprehensive look at their problems.

UNI