New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday while making it clear that the Supreme Court cannot examine parliamentary panel reports, questioned the apex court for expanding the scope of fundamental rights under Article 21 by often exercising its power under Article 142 of the Constitution. Attorney General K.K. Venugopal made this submission before a five-judge Constitution bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.K. Sikri, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, hearing a PIL quoting parliamentary standing committee report in support of its contentions.
The AG made it clear that standing committee reports are meant to be taken as an advice given to Parliament. It was for Parliament to act on the report, accept or reject the same, he said and cautioned the court from venturing into the domain of Parliament. The bench was dealing with a public interest writ petition against licensing and trials with “Cervical Cancer” vaccines with unproven and hazardous HPV vaccines which are said to prevent cervical cancer. The petitioners argued that the health ministry did not carry out an enquiry into licensing of these vaccines as ordered by the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
