{"id":371044,"date":"2026-09-04T15:47:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=371044"},"modified":"2026-09-04T15:47:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:17:04","slug":"article-142-of-the-indian-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/article-142-of-the-indian-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Article 142 of the Indian Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"content-box-green\">\n<p><b>News:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Supreme Court used Article 142 of the Indian Constitution to cancel all FIRs against youth protesters involved in the July 20\u201325 paper leak protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"red-h2-box\"><b>About Article 142 of the Indian Constitution<\/b><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_371054\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-371054\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-371054\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Source-ResearchGate-1.jpg?resize=300%2C172&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Article 142 of the Indian Constitution\" width=\"300\" height=\"172\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Source-ResearchGate-1.jpg?resize=300%2C172&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Source-ResearchGate-1.jpg?w=430&amp;ssl=1 430w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-371054\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; ResearchGate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Article 142<\/strong> allows the <strong>Supreme Court to pass<\/strong><\/span><b> such \u201cdecree or order as it is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it\u201d.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike most Constitutional provisions,<strong> it does not define \u201ccomplete justice\u201d or specify when it may be used.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Origin:<\/strong> The origins of this provision can be traced back to<strong> Section 210 of the Government of India Act, 1935<\/strong>.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li>Its roots also lie in the colonial practice of resolving disputes based on <strong data-start=\"165\" data-end=\"206\">\u201cjustice, equity and good conscience\u201d<\/strong> when written law was absent.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the Draft Constitution,<strong> it appeared as Article 118 and was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on May 27, 1949,<\/strong> without a debate. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Two amendments<\/strong> to it were<strong> moved and then withdrawn<\/strong>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its broad powers were largely left for the Supreme Court to<strong> define through case-by-case rulings over the next seven decades.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <strong>power is wide but not unlimited<\/strong> and <strong>cannot be exercised in violation of constitutional provisions,<\/strong> including fundamental rights.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><strong>Previous instance of use of this power by the Supreme Court: <\/strong>I<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">t has been invoked in several important cases:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Bhopal gas tragedy (1989):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Court approved a <\/span><b>$470 million settlement<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from Union Carbide and quashed the criminal cases against the company.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Ayodhya title dispute:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Court used the principle of <\/span><b>\u201cpreponderance of probability\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to settle the dispute and awarded <\/span><b>five acres of land to the Muslim side<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>A.G. Perarivalan case (2022):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Court ordered the <\/span><b>release of Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict A.G. Perarivalan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Divorce cases:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Court can use Article 142 to <\/span><b>grant divorce when it finds that a marriage has irretrievably broken down<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Public interest litigation:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The provision can also be used in <\/span><b>public interest litigations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, among other cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An IIM Ahmedabad study of cases from 1950\u20132023 found <\/span><b>1,579 references to Article 142 and 791 direct invocations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, mostly in civil matters.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><strong>Has the court tried to limit its own discretion:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court has itself tried to <\/span><b>limit the use of Article 142<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to prevent excessive judicial discretion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Prem Chand Garg v. State of Uttar Pradesh (1962):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Court held that Article 142 orders must be <\/span><b>consistent with fundamental rights and existing laws<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Supreme Court Bar Association v. Union of India (1998):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Court said Article 142 can <\/span><b>supplement a law by filling gaps<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but cannot <\/span><b>replace or override an existing statutory framework<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the Supreme Court has <\/span><b>often not followed these limitations strictly<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>How recent CJP order test that limit:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Normally, each <\/span><b>FIR is examined on its individual facts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> before being quashed under <\/span><b>Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court considers whether an <\/span><b>offence has actually been committed<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or whether the case is <\/span><b>clearly malicious<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the <\/span><b>CJP order<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, thousands of FIRs across several states were <\/span><b>clubbed together without individual scrutiny<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as part of a settlement between the Centre and a protest group.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This bypasses the <\/span><b>statutory process for quashing FIRs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and uses Article 142 to determine how the law should operate.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court also used its <\/span><b>Article 142 discretion to decide who would be excluded from the relief<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: The Supreme Court used Article 142 of the Indian Constitution to cancel all FIRs against youth protesters involved in the July 20\u201325 paper leak protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party. About Article 142 of the Indian Constitution Article 142 allows the Supreme Court to pass such \u201cdecree or order as it is necessary&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/article-142-of-the-indian-constitution\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Article 142 of the Indian Constitution<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1760,12039],"tags":[11872,11170],"class_list":["post-371044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-polity-and-nation","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-india-today","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371044","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\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}