{"id":265040,"date":"2023-10-18T20:18:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T14:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=265040"},"modified":"2023-10-18T20:21:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T14:51:24","slug":"demolishing-the-frame-from-outside-the-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/demolishing-the-frame-from-outside-the-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Demolishing the frame from outside the Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: <\/strong>This post has been created based on the article \u201cDemolishing the frame from outside the Constitution\u201d<\/strong> published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 18th<\/sup> October 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Indian Polity \u2014 <\/strong>Structure, organization, and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary.<\/strong><\/p>\n

News<\/strong>:\u00a0This article discusses the recent developments pointing to the undermining of constitutional democracy in India. It also highlights the important role of the judiciary in ensuring a thriving democracy.<\/p>\n

Recent Delhi Police raids on the news portal\u00a0NewsClick<\/strong> and invoking of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act to arrest people have brought the issue of undermining democracy to the fore.<\/p>\n

The increasingly vulnerable state of religious minorities<\/strong> due to violence and demonization<\/strong>, and the changes to political financing<\/strong> in the form of opaque electoral bonds<\/strong>, also point to this trend.<\/p>\n

What are the essential conditions of a democracy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1) Decision-making under democratic conditions<\/strong>: Democracy is not just in the principle of majority<\/strong> decision-making. Decisions should also be made under democratic conditions treating all members with equal respect and concern\u201d.<\/p>\n

2) Basic values have to be guaranteed:<\/strong> Values such as freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association, etc. contribute to a robust democracy.<\/p>\n

The Indian Constitution has created these conditions as part of the basic structure as articulated by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

How is democracy undermined without a rewriting of the Constitution?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1) Terrorism laws being invoked against journalists: the fundamental right to speech and expression is textually intact but not in practice.<\/p>\n

2) Hate speeches against minorities left unchecked: secularism remains intact in words but not in experiences.<\/p>\n

3) Opaque electoral funding: democracy is confined to paper.<\/p>\n

Why is the judiciary important in preventing this decline in democracy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

What rules and values should govern a society are perhaps decisions best left to the representative body i.e., Parliament, since it is seen as the representative of the people\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

But the courts have an obligation to ensure that the integrity of the process of democracy<\/strong> is protected.<\/p>\n

This is so because if the democratic process itself is faulty, then questions over the legitimacy of the representative body itself can be raised.<\/p>\n

A court, being unelected and outside of this process of popular representation<\/strong>, can ensure the integrity of the democratic process.<\/p>\n

What is the power of the courts in India in this context?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The powers of the Supreme Court of India include those to strike down laws and constitutional amendments<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It has even imposed a restriction on the Parliament in amending the Constitution through the basic structure doctrine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Therefore, it would not be wrong to argue that protecting the democratic process is still at the very core of the Court\u2019s duties.<\/p>\n

What should be the way forward?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Turning a blind eye to such profound violations of democratic conditions outside the text of the Constitution and laws would render both the Constitution and the Court without their identities.<\/p>\n

The Court\u2019s response to this challenge will determine not only the fate of the people but also that of the Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: This post has been created based on the article \u201cDemolishing the frame from outside the Constitution\u201d published in The Hindu on 18th October 2023. UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Indian Polity \u2014 Structure, organization, and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary. News:\u00a0This article discusses the recent developments pointing to the undermining of… Continue reading Demolishing the frame from outside 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":[212,225,10498],"class_list":["post-265040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-polity","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":180,"cached_at":1698377582,"cached_date":1698477945},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265040","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=265040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}