{"id":238746,"date":"2023-04-19T21:30:35","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T16:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=238746"},"modified":"2023-04-19T21:30:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T16:00:35","slug":"a-judgement-that-upholds-the-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-judgement-that-upholds-the-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"A judgement that upholds the Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cA judgement that upholds the Constitution\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on 19th April 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Judiciary<\/p>\n

Relevance:<\/strong> Issues related to working of the judiciary<\/p>\n

Context-<\/strong> The Supreme Court (SC) judgement in the Media One case requires a political reading and not merely a legal one.<\/p>\n

What is the importance of the judgement?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It is a landmark judgement on the freedom of expression.<\/strong> It endorses the citizen\u2019s right to question the state by distinguishing the government from the nation.<\/p>\n

What are recent criticisms against SC?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It has postponed hearings on important cases<\/strong> such as electoral bonds and the dilution of Article 370. It has also upheld the draconian provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.<\/p>\n

SC has taken a stand against constitutionally guaranteed freedoms<\/strong>. It stayed the Bombay High Court order that directed the release of physically challenged activist G.N. Saibaba.<\/p>\n

How is SC going for course correction?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In Anoop Baranwal v. Union of India,<\/em> SC took away the power of appointment of Election Commissioners<\/strong> from the sole domain of the executive<\/strong>. It directed the constitution of a committee to select them.<\/p>\n

Media One judgment<\/strong> has underlined the institutional capacity of the court<\/strong> to uphold the rights in troubled political times.<\/p>\n

How is the media one judgement different from other judgements that uphold the important constitutional principles?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the Bommai case<\/strong>, it holds that federalism and secularism <\/strong>are the basic features of the Constitution. However, it failed to address the real issue of dissolution of a few State governments, as elections were held in those States subsequently.<\/p>\n

In the Puttaswamy case<\/strong>, the Supreme Court only provided details of the idea of privacy<\/strong> and related concepts at a doctrinal level. It did not go for a direct and immediate encounter<\/strong> with the executive.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, in the Media One case, the court directly confronted the Centre.<\/p>\n

It directed it to renew the licence of the media house<\/strong>. It considered all the major doctrinal issues<\/strong> such as the right to fair hearing, proportionality standard and public interest claims<\/strong> and issued directives to the Centre in concrete terms.<\/p>\n

What are the challenges faced by the judiciary across the world?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Populist autocracies<\/strong> try to crush the judiciary with their majoritarian impulse<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In Israel,<\/strong> Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to interfere with the independence of the judiciary.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Bolivia,<\/strong> judges have been arbitrarily dismissed in the last few years.<\/p>\n

Poland <\/strong>lowered the retirement age of judges. The regime sent out older judges and inducted new persons who are loyalists of the government.<\/p>\n

The executive in India delays making judicial appointments as suggested by the collegium. There is sometimes even public criticism of the judiciary by the executive in India.<\/p>\n

How has the Supreme Court balanced its judgments?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It shows the judiciary\u2019s effort to resist majoritarian overtones<\/strong>. However, it has also distanced itself from the role that the Opposition is supposed to play.<\/p>\n

It is because the task before the court is not to uphold the Opposition\u2019s politics<\/strong>, even when it might be legitimate.<\/p>\n

Therefore, recently, the apex court rightly dismissed a plea by Opposition parties, which alleged arbitrary use of central probe agencies against them. The grievance is genuine. But the issue needed a political solution<\/strong>, not an adjudicatory resolution.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is how the court\u2019s constitutional duties vary from the Opposition\u2019s politics. It cannot pose a political check,<\/strong> which can only happen by way of mass movements or electoral decisions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cA judgement that upholds the Constitution\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 19th April 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Judiciary Relevance: Issues related to working of the judiciary Context- The Supreme Court (SC) judgement in the Media One case requires a political reading and not merely a legal one. What… Continue reading A judgement that upholds the Constitution<\/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":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-238746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238746","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=238746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}