Judgment

KRISHNA IYER, J. - The distance between societal realities and constitutional dilettantism often makes for the dilemma of statutory validity and arguments addressed in the present batch of certificated appeals and writ petitions evidence this forensic quandary. Likewise, the proximity between rural-cum-slum economics and social relief legislation makes for veering away from verbal obsessions in legal construction. A constitution is the documentation of the founding faiths of a nation and the fundamental directions for their fulfilment. So much so, an organic, not pedantic, approach to interpretation, must guide the judicial process. The healing art of harmonious construction, not the tempting game of hair-splitting, promotes the rhythm of the rule of law. These prologuic observations made, we proceed to deal with the common subject-matter of the appeals and the writ petitions.

2. A bunch of counsel, led by Shri Nariman and seconded by Shri B. Sen, have lashed out against the vires of the Maharashtra Debt Relief Act, 1976 (for short, the Debt Act). The former has focused on the fatal flaw in the Act based on Article 301 of the Constitution and the latter has concentrated his