The Supreme Court on Friday sought the assistance of top law officers to clarify the legal sanctity behind the Centre?s decision to allow up to 51% FDI in retail sector.
Without issuing a formal notice to the Centre, a bench headed by Justice RM Lodha asked the petitioner to serve the copy of the PIL to Attorney General GE Vahanvati or Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman for a clarification on the ?missing link? which the petitioner was ?unable to show? in his petition.
The court posted the matter for hearing on October 12. Hearing the plea challenging the FDI decision on procedural grounds, the judges said that opening of the sector is a policy matter and is ?exclusively in the domain of the government of the day. Some may say it is good and some may say it is bad but nothing is ultra vires.?
Rejecting Sharma?s contention that the notification was issued without the authority of law as approval of neither the President nor the Parliament was secured, the bench observed that ?the assumption that the policy has to be in the name of the President is flawed and unfounded.?
