A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, on Tuesday, commenced with the hearing of the Miscellaneous Application seeking modification of the guidelines for Living Will/Advance Medical Directive that was issued by way of its judgment recognizing ‘passive euthanasia’ in Common Cause v. Union of India And Anr.
During the course of the hearing, it was made abundantly clear that the directions issued by the Court are to be in effect only till law is enacted by the Legislature. The same had also been clearly stated in the Common Cause judgment. Justice K.M. Joseph, leading the 5-JudgeBench, was of the opinion that the Legislature is much more ‘endowed with multiple talents, skills, sources of knowledge’, which the Court lacks. He, very candidly, disclosed the limitation of the Court in specialised issues like the present one. In this context, Justice Aniruddha Bose asked the Additional Solicitor General, Mr. K.M. Nataraj, representing the Union Government –
“Have you thought of legislation in this field? It has been 5 years (since Common Cause judgment).”
Mr. Nataraj sought time to come back with his response.
Justice Bose emphasised that it is essentially a legislative function.