This decision is of much greater- Constitutional impor- tance than
might appear at first sight. If the Clause had been passed a Government Department, trying to administer a badly drafted Act, could have gone to the High Court for advice, even for help. The Bench would have been drawn into a kind of working alliance with the Executive. It would have been invited by Governments to get them out of difficulties which the Governments themselves had created. With a unanimous voice legal opinion condemned the Clause. The business of judges is to decide upon laws as they are written, not to offer -opinions upon general principles or hypothetical cases. If the Clause had not been withdrawn public confidence in the Judiciary might gradually have been undermined. For it is obvious that confidence would fail if the citizen felt that instead of getting a " square deal " in Court he was up against rulings which had been arranged in 'advance by the ExeCutive and the Judges in collaboration.
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