Polity

Judicial review is the power of the Supreme Court to examine the constitutionality of legislative enactments and executive orders of both the Central and state governments. On examination, if they are found to be violative of the Constitution (ultra-vires), they can be declared as illegal, unconstitutional and invalid (null and void) by the Supreme Court. … Read more

The Constitution (Article 143) authorises the president to seek the opinion of the Supreme Court in the two categories of matters: On any question of law or fact of public importance which has arisen or which is likely to arise. On any dispute arising out of any pre-constitution treaty, agreement, covenant, engagement, sanad or other … Read more

. The Constitution has constituted the Supreme Court as the guarantor and defender of the fundamental rights of the citizens. The Supreme Court is empowered to issue writs including habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo-warrento and certiorari for the enforcement of the fundamental rights of an aggrieved citizen. In this regard, the Supreme Court has original … Read more

As a federal court, the Supreme Court decides the disputes between different units of the Indian Federation. More elaborately, any dispute between: The Centre and one or more states; or The Centre and any state or states on one side and one or more states on the other; or Between two or more states. In … Read more

. The Constitution has made the following provisions to safeguard and ensure the independent and impartial functioning of the Supreme Court: Mode of Appointment The judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the Pre-sident (which means the cabinet) in consultation with the members of the judiciary itself (ie, judges of the Supreme Court and … Read more

Appointment of Chief Justice From 1950 to 1973, the practice has been to appoint the seniormost judge of the Supreme Court as the chief justice of India. This established convention was violated in 1973 when A N Ray was appointed as the Chief Justice of India by superseding three senior judges. Again in 1977, M … Read more

The objectives behind the constitution of the Parliamentary forums are: To provide a platform to the members to have interactions with the ministers concerned, experts and key officials from the nodal ministries with a view to have a focused and meaningful discussion on critical issues with a result-oriented approach for speeding up the implementation process; … Read more

. The Indian Parliament cannot be regarded as a sovereign body as there are ‘legal’ restrictions on its authority and jurisdiction. The factors that limit the sovereignty of Indian Parliament are: Written Nature of the Constitution The Constitution is the fundamental law of the land in our country. It has defined the authority and jurisdiction … Read more

Parliamentary privileges are special rights, immunities and exemptions enjoyed by the two Houses of Parliament, their committees and their members. They are necessary in order to secure the independence and effectiveness of their actions. Without these privileges, the Houses can neither maintain their authority, dignity and honour nor can protect their members from any obstruction … Read more