Why in the News?
The Israel’s legislative assembly, the Knesset has passed a bill that has a potential to overhaul the Judiciary’s powers and thereby gives unlimited powers to the Knesset.
What are the proposals of the bill?
1. Abolition of the “Reasonability Doctrine”.
a. As Israel doesn’t have a written constitution, its laws cannot be decided on ‘constitutional validity’ and hence the Court uses the Reasonability doctrine to decide upon laws.
b. The Reasonability doctrine means that the judiciary shall critically examine the executive decisions and ministerial appointments based on the level of sensibleness and fairness involved in them.
c. This empowers the judiciary to nullify the laws and executive actions which fail to stand the reasonability test.
2. The bill empowers the Parliament to override the decisions of the court using an absolute majority passed by the parliament (61 votes out of 120).
3. The government seeks to control the judicial appointments by making modifications in the Judicial appointments panel.
a. The Judicial Appointments panel consisting of 9 members include:
· 3 Supreme Court Judges
· 2 members of the Israeli Bar Association
· 2 members from the Parliament
· 2 members from the government.
b. The bill seeks to replace members of the Bar Association with two public representatives chosen by the government. This shall lead to the government sharing majority seats in the panel.
4. The bill proposes to do away with the practice of legal obligation of the ministers to follow the advice given by their legal advisers.
What is the response of the bill?
The bill has been criticized by the opposition parties and the general public are staging protests due to the following concerns:
a. The overarching power of the government with undermined judicial powers shall undermine the country’s democracy.
b. The bill has caused apprehensions among the liberals that the country shall become an authoritarian theocracy under the far-right government without the check of the judiciary.
Comparison between Indian and Israeli Political system:
| Parameter | Indian Political system | Israel Political system |
1. | Constitution | Written constitution | The country is governed by 11 Basic Laws and has no written constitution |
2. | Legislature | Bicameral legislature 1. The Lok Sabha 2. The Rajya Sabha | Unicameral Legislature called the Knesset |
3. | Passage of laws | Three types of Majority has been mentioned in the constitution for passage of laws:
| All the laws including laws making modification to the Basic Laws can be passed with a Simple Majority. |
4. | Electoral system | The members of the lower house are elected through First-Past-the-Post system | The members of the Knesset are elected by system of Proportional representation. |
5. | Term of the elected Government | Five years | Four years |
6. | Cabinet | The composition of the cabinet need not be approved by the Parliament | The composition of the Cabinet has to be mandatorily approved by the Cabinet. |
7. | Comptroller | The Comptroller & Auditor General of India is appointed by the President. | The state comptroller is elected by the Knesset in a secret ballot. |
8. | Judiciary | India has an integrated judicial system with a hierarchy of courts: 1. The Supreme court 2. The High Courts 3. The sub-ordinate courts. Has no religious courts to handle cases of family courts. | Israel’s Judiciary consists if a three-tier system: 1. The Supreme Court 2. District Courts 3. Magistrate Courts Has separate religious courts to adjudicate cases relating to family laws. |
Similarities:
1. Parliamentary democracy with a multi-party system and a cabinet-system of government.
2. The President is the head of the state with ceremonial roles to perform and has powers of Pardon.
3. The Prime Minister is the Head of the government, appointed by the President.
4. A No-Confidence motion can be passed to remove the ruling party from power.
