No class of the citizenry would want the government to be run by courts, not even the judiciary. But in recent times, the Bombay High Court has pulled the state Democratic Front government up in as many as 26 matters. Many of the court’s declarations were eye-openers for us. No one would disagree that in a government the elected government should always have a free hand to govern. But the current scrutiny of government decisions by the courts, followed by strictures, censure and directives, certainly shows that something is rotten in the state of Maharashtra.u00a0

It’s not just the electorate but the judiciary too that is finding fault in the workings of the government. Apart from a decision to take up the death of malnourished children and the shoddy purchases made in their name as a suo motu PIL after an extensive series of reports run by MiD DAY, there have been a number of PILs demanding scrutiny of government decisions. u00a0The HC had to ask the government to appoint an officer from the IAS cadre to oversee the schemes and projects implemented for the benefit of tribal dominated Melghat in Amravati, where a number of deaths due to malnutrition have been reported.