Summary

Polity Class 30

A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS CLASS (05:00 PM)

Pending cases
Supreme Court Benches all across the country
Supreme Court to be considered as a Constitutional Bench
All India Judicial Services

JUDICIAL REFORMS (contd) (05:05 PM)

Reservations can be given to ensure adequate representation of weaker sections in these institutions.
There can be an All India Judicial Service on the lines of the IAS, IFS, and IPS.
An open competitive examination can be conducted for these judicial services by the Supreme Court secretariat with the help of UPSC.
PIL has been criticized as private interest litigation, profit interest litigation, personal interest litigation, and personality interest litigation.
There have been many instances, wherein PIL has also been used for political purposes.
Contempt of court has been liberally used by our judges to prevent criticism of their judgments.
Our SC has accepted the weakness in the Collegium system but did not come out with an alternative to it.
Judicial Activism has become a guiding light in instances of executive and legislative vacuum.
It has been said that Judiciary was more proactive in making the legislature and Executive accountable for their performance without looking at its own performance.
In a very controversial move, the Chief Justice of India sat on the judgment in a case related to himself.
Since cases in lower courts are argued in local languages, there have been apprehensions as to how a person from north India can hold hearings in a southern state.
To conclude, in a developing democracy like India, Judiciary can play a very significant role in realizing effective constitutionalism.
It must make Legislature &Executive accountable to the people for their performance.

FACTS (05:45 PM)

India has an integrated judiciary with the SC at the top.
On the other hand, the USA of America has an independent judiciary wherein each state has its own independent SC and also has a federal court.
In India, decisions of the SC are binding upon all the courts in the country.
Important Articles-
Art 124-
Establishment of the SC
Art 124 A-
NJAC
Art 131-
Original jurisdiction of the SC
Art 132-
Appellate jurisdiction of the SC
Art 141-
Laws declared by the SC are binding upon all courts.
Art 142-
Enforcement of decrees and orders of the SC.
Art 136-
Special Leave Petition
Art 139-
Power of the Parliament to confer more power on the SC with respect to certain writs.
Art 143-
Power of the President to consult the SC.
Appointment of Judges (05:55 PM)
The judges of the SC are appointed by the President.
The seniormost judge of the SC is normally appointed as the Chief Justice.
Qualifications-
He/She should be a citizen of India.
He/She should have been a judge of a High Court for a period of 5 years or;
should have been an advocate practicing in a High Court for 10 years;
should be a distinguished jurist in the opinion of the President.
There is no minimum age limit.
Removal-
An SC judge can be removed by the President by issuing an order for his removal.
The President can issue the order only after Parliament gives its approval.
A judge can be removed only because of misbehavior or incapacity.
Judges Enquiry Act of 1968-
It defines the procedure for the removal of judges through the process of impeachment.
A removal motion must be signed by 100 MPs (Lok Sabha) or 50 MPs (Rajya Sabha).
It should be presented to the Speaker or the Chairman of the House.
The Speaker or the Chairman may or may not admit the motion.
If the motion is admitted, the Speaker or the Chairman will constitute a 3 member committee to investigate the charges.
The Committee should consist of the Chief Justice of the SC, the Chief Justice of a High Court, and A distinguished Jurist.
It investigates the charges and if it is found that the concerned judge is guilty of misbehavior or has been suffering from incapacity or proved misbehavior, the house can take up the motion.
After the house passes the motion, the other house also must pass the same with a Special Majority.
It will be then sent to the President.
The President then passes the order removing the judge.
Since independence till date, no judge has been removed through an impeachment process.
In 1993, the Parliament took up the impeachment of Justice Ramaswamy but it could not be passed in the Lok Sabha.

JURISDICTION OF THE SUPREME COURT (06:16 PM)

Original Jurisdiction-
The SC has the power to decide the disputes between-
the Union and one or more states;
Union and any State on one side and any other state on the other side;
Between two or more states.
Writ Jurisdiction-
Art 32 includes the Writ Jurisdiction of the SC.
But the Writ jurisdiction of the SC is less than that of the High Courts.
SC can issue writs only for the enforcement of Fundamental Rights.
Appellate Jurisdiction-
It can be classified into-
Constitutional Matters-
An appeal can be made to the SC against the judgment of a High Court.
It should be noted that the High Court should that the case involves a substantial question of law that requires interpretation of the Constitution.
Civil Matters-
Any judgment of the High Court can be appealed in the SC in civil cases.
Criminal Matters-
In the case of Criminal matters also SC can take up the cases wherein the judgments are delivered by the High Court.
Special Leave Petition- (06:33 PM)
The SC in its discretion grants special leave to appeal from any judgment in any matter passed by any court or a tribunal.
It gives very wide powers to the SC.
Even though the SC can use this power under exceptional circumstances.
Advisory Jurisdiction-
Art 143 authorizes the President to seek the opinion of the SC in certain matters-
On any question of law or fact of public importance;
Any dispute arising out of a pre-constitutional treaty or agreement.
In the first case, the SC may or may not tender its opinion.
In the second case, the SC must give its opinion.

UNION- STATE RELATIONS (07:15 PM)

Indian Federation is not a proper federalism, as said by Dr. Ambedkar.
Constitutional forefathers did not want to make India a Federal state in true spirit because there was no unity in the country.
Our constitution is called Federal in form but unitary in spirit.
India is an indestructible union of destructible states.
Unitary Features of the Constitution-
Articles 3 & 4
Emergency Provisions: Under Article 356, the central government can dismiss the state governments.
Article 360: Financial Emergency
Governor and his discretionary powers
All India Services
Single Citizenship
Integrated Judiciary
Finance Commission
Election Commission
Comptroller and Auditor General
Composition of Rajya Sabha
Residual powers are with the Central government
Federal features- (07:35 PM)
Written Constitution
Division of powers
Independent judiciary
Judicial Review
Existence of Rajya Sabha
Division of Union-State in Relations
Our constitution makers decided upon 'The Principle of Subidiarity' to decide upon the division of powers.
Principle of Subsidiarity-
Functions that can be formed at the lowest level should remain with the lowest levels of governance.
Eg: State List
The functions which need more specialization and have national implications should be undertaken by the Union.
Eg: International Relations
Issues of contention- (07:43 PM)
The tendency of the Union to shift the subjects from the State list to the Union and Concurrent list.
The All India Services has become controversial.
The recently repealed farm laws were an issue of contention wherein the Union tried making laws around agriculture which is a state subject.
Grants are given by the Finance Commission
GST Council
Inter-State Border Disputes
Inter-State Water Disputes
Phases- (07:56 PM)
1947-67 - Unitary State
1967-1990- Confrontational Federalism
1990- 2019- Cooperative Federalism
2019- Confrontation (Unitary State)

TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED IN THE NEXT CLASS- UNION-STATE RELATIONS