Indicating reversal of process for the divestment of public sector undertakings adopted by the National Democratic Alliance government, the Centre on Wednesday said matters of such public importance cannot be taken up without taking Parliament into confidence.
"The earlier government was of the view that in matters of divestment, Parliament could be bypassed. That was also the opinion of the Attorney General. That is not the view of the new government," Law Minister Hans Raj Bharadwaj told reporters in New Delhi.
Referring to the Supreme Court verdict nullifying the divestment of government holding in oil majors Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, he said the apex court had rightly objected to the selling off of PSUs without parliamentary approval.
"The Parliament should have been taken into confidence as the PSUs have been created from the public money," he said adding "divestment should have legal sanction".
"Without the approval of Parliament you (the government) cannot fritter away public money," the minister said.
He said the new government would employ a "simultaneous integrated approach to economic reforms" as without this all decisions in this regard would be challenged in the courts.
The law minister said the legal and economic reforms should go on simultaneously without veiling the focus on the interest of the common man.
"Reforms should be aimed at the common man, the man on the street who does not understand big terms like divestment," he said.
Discounting the ups and downs of the stock market due to the policies of the government on divestment, he said: "The rich and big people can afford to lose some money in the stock market but not the common man who invests his retirement benefits and hard earned money there."
"The common man should be protected and the state must guarantee this," he said, adding the downward trend of bank interest rates was another area of concern.
"The retired people have deposited their entire life's savings in the banks and the lowering of rates of interest in the small savings is going to hurt them the most," he added.
This is especially true in the case of those investing in stock markets, as in India "we do not have a social security system like that in place in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom," he said.
More from rediff