{"id":235618,"date":"2023-04-01T20:04:40","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T14:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=235618"},"modified":"2023-04-04T06:44:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T01:14:50","slug":"for-judiciary-the-red-lines-are-bright-and-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/for-judiciary-the-red-lines-are-bright-and-clear\/","title":{"rendered":"For judiciary, the red lines are bright and clear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>&#8211; The post is based on the article <strong>\u201cFor judiciary, the red lines are bright and clear\u201d <\/strong>published in <strong>\u201cThe Indian Express\u201d <\/strong>on <strong>1st April 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Functioning of judiciary<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>&#8211; Issues related to judicial review and judicial activism<\/p>\n<p><strong>News<\/strong>&#8211;\u00a0 Over the last few years, issues relating to tradition, culture and society have come before the constitutional courts of the country in the form of public interest litigation.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are some facts about doctrine of basic structure and judicial review?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>One of the most fundamental principles of <strong>constitutional morality<\/strong> is that every organ should look at its jurisdiction to discharge a particular role. It is to preserve the <strong>sanctity of the doctrine of separation of powers.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The doctrine is part of the <strong>basic structure of the Constitution<\/strong>. It is meant to preserve the <strong>respective power of the legislature, executive and judiciary.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The judiciary has the <strong>power of review<\/strong> over the other two organs. But, such power has limitations which must respect the<strong> institutional independence and competence<\/strong> of such organs.<\/p>\n<p>The power of judicial review is not <strong>judicial supervision or superintendence<\/strong> over the legislature or executive. This position is especially applicable in matters of policy where <strong>domain expertise<\/strong> is required. This is also the case with <strong>societal experimentation,<\/strong> where there is a need for a <strong>process of consultation<\/strong> between the electorate and the elected.<\/p>\n<p>The doctrine of separation of power facilitates <strong>participative democracy in letter and spiri<\/strong>t. It facilitates the <strong>right of the public<\/strong> to give effect to its will through the legislature.<\/p>\n<p>Even if the decision of the majority is flawed, it cannot be reviewed by the judiciary except on the <strong>grounds of constitutionality. <\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What should be the way forward for the judiciary?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Judicial wisdom should not replace the <strong>will of the majority<\/strong>. The Constitution does not envisage replacing democracy with<strong> judicial paternalism.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Constitution recognises that sometimes a good policy decision may be <strong>unconstitutional, <\/strong>and a bad policy decision may be constitutional. Only unconstitutionality is the ground for the <strong>intervention of the judiciary. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The judiciary should dissuade public interest litigants and civil society groups from seeking its intervention by crossing <strong>constitutional limits. <\/strong>In a democracy, those who wish to convince the legislature of their position must engage with <strong>societal and legislative stakeholders<\/strong> to put across their point of view.<\/p>\n<p>There do exist areas where both the legislature and executive are not taking decisions because of their<strong> vested interest<\/strong>s. It forces the affected parties to seek judicial remedy. In such instances, the Supreme Court may invoke its<strong> extraordinary powers under <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/article-142-of-indian-constitution\"><strong>Article 142<\/strong><\/a> to address an exigency until the legislature brings in a law on the subject. An example of this is the<strong> Vishakha guidelines. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The judiciary cannot go for<strong> judicial review<\/strong> merely because the judiciary or some members of the judiciary disagree with the <strong>social premise <\/strong>underlying the law. State interest can not be questioned based on <strong>judicial disagreement with the legislative or executive position<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Judicial disagreement<\/strong> with legislative policy is not <strong>proof of unconstitutionality.<\/strong> Only the constitution is the measure to <strong>assess constitutionality. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Judiciary should not express its opinion on <strong>matters of policy<\/strong> where it has no jurisdiction, with the intention of <strong>shaping public opinion<\/strong> or to put pressure on the other organs. It can have an impact on the <strong>public discourse.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Constitution permits the judiciary to perform an <strong>advisory role<\/strong> in very limited circumstances and that too only when sought for. These<strong> red lines<\/strong> drawn by the Constitution cannot be breached by any constitutional Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source&#8211; The post is based on the article \u201cFor judiciary, the red lines are bright and clear\u201d published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d on 1st April 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Functioning of judiciary Relevance&#8211; Issues related to judicial review and judicial activism News&#8211;\u00a0 Over the last few years, issues relating to tradition, culture and society have come&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/for-judiciary-the-red-lines-are-bright-and-clear\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">For judiciary, the red lines are bright and clear<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500,11347],"class_list":["post-235618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","tag-judicial-review","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}