Judiciary Class 11 Notes Political Science Chapter 6 - CBSE

Chapter : 6

What Are Judiciary ?

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What Is Judiciary ?

The judiciary is the third important part of the government which is supervised by various individuals or institutions as the arbitrator of resolving mutual disputes to protect the rule of law and ensure supremacy of the law. For this, it is necessary that the judiciary must be accountable to the democratic traditions and the people of the country.

Judiciary safeguards rights of the individuals. It settles disputes in accordance with the law and ensures
democratic values must be secured.
The legislature and the executive should not refrain the functioning of the Judiciary.
Judges can do their functions without any fear or favour.
To be appointed as a judge, a person must have experience as a lawyer and must be well versed in law, the Judges have a fixed tenure. They remain in office till they get retirement.
Only in exceptional cases judges can be removed .
The actions and decisions of the judges are immune from personal criticism.
Parliament cannot discuss the conduct of judges except when the proceeding to remove a charge is being carried out.
Judiciary is not financially dependent on either the legislature or executive.
In the context of the appointment of the Chief Justice, it is also a convention that the most senior judge of the Supreme Court will be elected as the Chief Justice of India.
The President appoints the Judges of High Court and Supreme Court on the advice of the Chief Justice of India.
The structure of the judiciary in India is pyramidal with the supreme court at the top, High Court below them and district and subordinate court at the lowest level.

Jurisdiction Of Supreme Court

Original: Settles dispute between Union and State and also amongst states.
Writ: Can issue writs of Habeas Corpus, Mandamus, Prohibition, Certiorari and Quo Warranto to protect the
Fundamental Rights of the individual.
Appellate: Hearing appeals on cases of the subordinate courts related to civil, criminal matters or serious matter of interpretation of law or Constitution.
Advisory: To advise the President of India on the matters of public importance, interpretation of
Constitution.
Privilege: Hearing appeal under special leave petition on the decisions given by any court in the territory
of India.

Judicial Activism

The main means of judicial activism in India has been public interest litigation or social behaviour petition.
After 1979, through public interest litigation and judicial activism, the judge showed interest in cases where people from certain sections of the society could not easily move to the court. Social organisations and lawyers were allowed to file petition on the behalf of the needy and poor people of the society.
PIL has become the most important vehicle of Judicial activisim.

Negative Aspects of Active Judiciary

Increased workload on judiciary.
Judicial activism made it difficult to distinguish between the functions of the legislature, executive and judiciary such as - removing air and noise pollution, checking corruption and electoral reforms etc. The administration should do under the supervision of the legislator.

Right to Judicial Review

Judicial review means that the Supreme Court can examine the constitutionality of any law, if it is contrary to the provisions of the Constitution, then it can be declared non-constitutional or null and void.
Supreme Court can also exercise the power of judicial review in case of federal related issues. (Centre State
Relations).
The judiciary can interpret the Constitution and the laws passed by the legislature, it effectively protects
the constitution.

Protects the Rights of Citizens

The power of the judiciary has increased in protecting the rights of citizens by public interest petitions.

Supreme Court Decision in 1973

The Constitution has a basic structure and no one, including Parliament, can violate. This fundamental structure cannot be changed even by the Constitutional amendment.
The court reserved to itself the right to decide whether various matters are part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
The Constitution provides that the conduct of judges cannot be discussed in Parliament but on many occasions the conduct of the judiciary has been pointed out. Similarly, the judiciary also criticised the executive on several occasions but in democracy it is essential for each organ of the government to respect the authority of others.