India being the largest Democracy in the world has its basis distributed among three institutions or what we say the Three Pillars. These 3 pillars are- the Legislature, the Judiciary and the Executive, and, nowadays we see another 4th pillar evolving day by day i.e., the Media. Therefore, one can understand the importance of these pillars in the functioning of a democracy.
Let us now look at the history of our country. At the time of independence, when our country was entering a new age of self-sufficiency by finally getting rid of the British rule, our lawmakers faced a very difficult task of making laws that would work for a diverse cultural population living in one country. Our lawmakers formulated our Constitution in a very carefully considered manner by incorporating various aspects from various Constitutions around the world. For example, we have incorporated our fundamental rights in Part-III of the Constitution of the United States of America; Amendment of Constitution according to Article-368 of the South African Constitution; etc. In the Constitution itself, we find provisions specially designed for the judiciary, such as Chapter-IV of Part-V (Article-124 to 147) which works for the Union Judiciary, and Chapter-V(Article-214 to 237) of Part-VI which works for the High Court of a State.
The basic function of the judiciary is to deliver justice to the public en masse. However, when we speak in legal terms, the function of the judiciary goes beyond the mere delivery of justice to the public. Since India is a parliamentary form of Democracy, there is a deep-rooted concept of separation of powers among these three important institutions. Of course, the judiciary has a lot of other responsibilities. Although it is often said that the judiciary is an Independent Pillar in the Indian democracy, yet there is no real proof of identifying it as such because in a Collectively Responsive Democratic environment like India has, it is difficult to distinguish the apples from the oranges. However, it is clear that the Indian Judiciary is still free of any political interference and influence, and hence can be counted as an Independent Pillar with monitoring power over both the Executive and the Legislature.
Another superpower of Judiciary is the Judicial Review, though not expressly mentioned anywhere in law, but can be evolved from Article-32 and 226 of the Constitution. This power of Judicial Review has the tendency of a juggernaut in functioning of a democracy as it empowers the decision of a Supreme Court to over-ride any parliament made law in case of conflict i.e., in case of any ambiguity or conflict of any law made by the parliament, the Supreme Court’s judgement will prevail over it.
At the end, the most prevalent warning given by the educated class of the society who don’t act as vigilantes by their own is - I will see you in court! Therefore, have faith in judiciary because we are still evolving it by exploring its powers in its functionary.
Types of Judicial Powers
Judicial powers can fall into several different categories. Here are some examples of judicial powers:
- Original Jurisdiction: This is when a court is first hearing a case. This court is then said to have original jurisdiction.
- Appellate Jurisdiction: This is when a case has been appealed (the original decision questioned) and another court hears the case.
- Redress: This term refers to dealing with damages and relief.
- Diversity Jurisdiction: The ability of federal courts to hear cases involving people from different states.
- Subject Matter Jurisdiction: Federal courts have jurisdiction of cases involving federal law.
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