Why in News/ Relevance:
Supreme courts various proactive judgements recently.
Coverage:
General Studies- II: Polity – Constitution salient features
Answer Structure:
- Introduction: Nature of Parliamentary form of Government
- Body: Sovereignty of British Parliament, American Supreme Court power of judicial review, in India Parliament and the Supreme Court are supreme in their respective spheres.
- Conclusion: Mix of the British sovereignty of Parliament and American judicial supremacy in the Indian case.
Answer:
India has adopted parliamentary form of Government where the executive is responsible to the parliament and indirectly to the people .
In the British parliamentary system, Parliament was supposed to be supreme and sovereign. There were no limitations on its powers, at least in theory, in as much as there was no written constitution and the Judiciary had no powers of judicial review of legislation even if a law violated fundamental human rights.
Whereas, in the U.S. system, the Supreme Court with its power of judicial review and of interpreting the Constitution has assumed supremacy.
In the Indian case, we are governed by the rule of law and judicial review of administrative action is an essential part of rule of law. Thus, courts can determine not only the constitutionality of the law but also the procedural part of administrative action (State of Bihar vs. Subhash Singh, AIR 1997 SC 1390). But, since we have a written constitution and the powers and functions of every organ are defined and delimited by the Constitution, there is no question of any organ-not even Parliament- being sovereign.
Both the Parliament and the Supreme Court are supreme in their respective spheres. On the one hand, the Supreme Court may declare a law passed by Parliament ultra vires as being violative of the Constitution; on the other hand, the Parliament may within certain restrictions amend most parts of the Constitution.
Thus it can be concluded that In India, the framers of the Constitution have arrived at a middle course and a compromise between the British sovereignty of Parliament and American judicial supremacy.
(The model answer provided by us strictly follows the word limit, the above answer is compiled in 265 words.)