Justice Judocracy And Democracy In India

This book offers an innovative approach to studying ‘judicial activism’ in the Indian context in tracing its history and relevance since 1773. While discussing the varying roles of the judiciary, it delineates the boundaries of different organs of the State — judiciary, executive and legislature — and highlights the points where these boundaries have been breached, especially through judicial interventions in parliamentary affairs and their role in governance and policy. Including a fascinating range of sources such as legal cases, books, newspapers, periodicals, lectures, historical texts and records, the author presents the complex sides of the arguments persuasively, and contributes to new ways of understanding the functioning of the judiciary in India. This paperback edition, with a new Afterword, updates the debates around the raging questions facing the Indian judiciary. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of law, political science and history, as well as legal practitioners and the general reader.

This book explores how the liberal conception of justice with all its ideological underpinnings is reflected in the framing and working of the Constitution of India, in the adoption of broader socio-economic objectives, in the functioning of judicial and state institutions, and in the formulation and implementation of development strategy. It analyses the dynamics of the relationship between justice, democracy and the state. The book studies the liberal conception of social justice and its sufficiency, and interrogates its performance and adequacy within the structural parameters and cultural conditions of postcolonial India. It provides an analytical exposition of how the borrowed and inadequate conception of liberal justice and democracy inherited from colonial past, and the espousal of the derivative developmental pattern based on modernist and constructivist paradigm, have together failed to achieve the modest target of justice enshrined in the Constitution. Interlinking justice, democracy and state, the book examines their operational dynamics in an integrated framework which has relevance for other Third World countries also because of socio-economic and cultural commonalites.

Few will deny that the post-emergency higher judiciary in India has earned widespread public acclaim for its innovative and creative jurisprudence notwithstanding the argument advanced by some critics that it has exercised excessive jurisdiction, transgressing at times the executive and legislative domains, contrary to the original 'checks and balances' design of the Constitution. While the issue of judicial restraint in the context of constitutional separation of powers deserves serious attention, the fact of the matter is that juristocracy invariably triumphs when the elected representatives in a democracy cannot be trusted to provide good and lawful governance. From this perspective, the unprecedented judicialisation of politics and the growth of judicial activism in India seems to be an organic response to pressures within the political system itself. The contributors to the volume are well-known scholars, lawyers, and academics. They reflect on the itinerary of higher judiciary and its contributions to constitutional law and public good contextualised for the developmental path of the political system since the commencement of the Republic in 1950. The papers cover a variety of topics -- judicial activism, judiciary and ecology, secularism, parliamentary institutions, central executive, new economy, and judicial reforms -- that focus primarily, though not exclusively, on the ramifications of judicial activism for Indian politics.

Judicial institutions evolved in India in the context of India’s social, economic and political conditions and because of the reception of legal concepts and institutions known to English and Scottish judges, lawyers and administrators. Modern Indian judiciary bears the hallmarks of its genesis and evolution during the British rule but it has progressively gone for beyond the colonial confines after the republican Constitution came into force. The theme of fundamental Rights and the role of the Supreme Court and the High Courts as vigilant custodians of fundamental rights are at the heart of India’s constitutional democracy. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to our apex judicature, the higher judiciary and the country’s bar in the evolution of the common law of the Constitution. It constitutes by common consent a remarkable chapter in our national life. H v H The Constitution of India is not the last word in human wisdom, but it was certainly a glorious achievement of national consensus and national commitment. The higher Indian judiciary can be said to have broadly fulfilled its constitutional ethos. There have been aberrations, notably during the Emergency and in some cases, of overstating and unduly enlarging the scope of judicial power. More seriously, there are grave and growing problems of inefficient case management, arrears, delays, corruption and incompetence. Those issues have to be addressed urgently, effectively and comprehensively if the Indian judiciary is to emerge as a fit instrument for Rule of Law for the teeming millions in the largest democracy in the world and if the Indian judiciary is to flourish in the twenty-first century holding its head high as an institution of freedom, liberty and balance, with a commitment to the constitutional goals and aspirations of We the People of India.

Contains 25 Papers And Two Documents Which Book At Various Aspects Of Indian Judicial System At All Levels-Judicial Activism-Appointment Of Judges-Independence Of Judiciary-Rule Of Law Etc.

"Since the day the Constitution of India came into force, Judicial Activism has existed in different forms under the Constitution. Judicial Activism initiated by the higher judiciary in India has started serious debates on the Court’s undefined power to place substantive as well as procedural limits on the executive as well as the legislature. The Court’s new role to make law and give directions has been criticised as the usurpation of powers that belong to the other two organs. The Court has been defending its new role to uphold the constitutional values of protecting the human rights of the people thereby upholding the principle of Rule of Law. Through this book, Dr. Deka Swapna Manindranath analyses the legitimacy of Judicial Activism in India as well as the intrusions made by the judiciary in the name of Judicial Activism. The author argues that Judicial Activism under the Constitution has been inevitable in view of the socio-economic and political conditions of the nation as well as due to the laxity of performance on the part of the other two organs. This book will be of interest to the research scholars and students of Indian Constitutional law and Political Science, judges, lawyers and general readers interested in knowing about the phenomenon of Judicial Activism in India."

We, the people of India, have adopted a written Constitution which has created an independent judiciary having the power of judicial review. While exercising this power, the judiciary not only acts as a guardian of the Constitution and its values, but also protects us from illegality, arbitrariness, malafides and corruption of other organs of the State. Therefore, in order to perform these functions the judiciary in India, since the adoption of the Constitution has been enjoying the highest degree of independence and has been held least accountable. This system has been adopted in the Constitution with the objective to achieve the concept of Justice as enshrined in the Preamble. It is pertinent to note that initially the judiciary had responded appropriately to achieve this object but, in due course of time, the Indian Judiciary under the guise of judicial activism, has shifted its focus in addition to delivering Justice, to governing the nation and its policies.