Courts must be guided by constitutional morality: CJI

Courts must be guided by constitutional morality: CJI

News: The article discusses about the importance of constitutional morality for courts.

Facts:

• Chief Justice of India said constitutional courts must rely on the principles of constitutional morality to test the validity of State actions.
• Constitutional morality is devised as judges cannot apply their personal notions to judgments.
• As one goes higher into Constitutional courts, the situation and cases become complex. Judges should not permit their individual notions to affect their judgment and decision-making process.
• To help judges in decision making, principles of constitutional morality have been evolved, which is a better and safer and realistic test.
• Judges should do what is right as per the principles of constitutional morality.

Origin of the debate:

• The issue of constitutional morality has drawn criticism from various quarters since the Supreme Court’s Sabarimala judgment when, by a 4-1 majority verdict, the apex court had lifted age restrictions on entry of women into the forest shrine.
• The verdict was hailed for establishing the supremacy of constitutional morality over customary laws, rituals and traditions.
• Constitutional morality implies adherence to the core principles of the constitution.
• An important case which employed this concept in an innovative manner was the Naz Foundation case which used the concept of constitutional morality to strike down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and decriminalise homosexuality.
• Therein, the court had addressed how constitutional morality and not popular morality ir public morality should guide the Court’s decision while interpreting the constitution. 
• Constitutional morality has been invoked by the courts in many rights claim cases like surrogacy, speech, sexual orientation etc.