JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government April 16 filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging the signing of the GATT treaty by the government of India. He urged the count that the final Act of the treaty should not be implemented without the consent of the states
The writ petition filed through the state’s lawyer Aruncshwar Gupta alleged that the Union government was subverting and undermining the principles of federalism through the GATT. “The government of India has acted beyond the limits of its powers and entered into an international agreement so as to paralyze the plaintiffs state of Rajasthan in making laws taking executive actions within the limits of its exclusive authority under the Constitution of India so as to promote agriculture protect the farmers and carry on the development and progress of the state on the basis of its social and economic policies in accordance with its democratic mandate received after free The Rajasthan government asserted that the final Act was a reversal of the noble ideals of the freedom struggle. Under Article 51A of the Constitution every citizen including the President the Prime Minister and Union ministers were bound to uphold and protect the sovereignty and follow the noble ideals of Swadeshi and Swaraj which inspired the freedom struggle.
Signing the final Act will result in the collapse of the sovereign democrat and federal structure Of the Constitution the Rajasthan government contended the cause Of action has arisen because of the Union and India signing the Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiations.
The Rajasthan government clitimed that the negotiations conducted in respect of the Dunkel draft treaty and the final Act were unconstitutional because they had been conducted in a clandestine manner and disregard for the states demand for consultation.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 22, 1994
