Provisions Relating to the Institution of the Judiciary
- The Constitution acknowledges that Parliament cannot limit the enormous authority possessed by the judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court.
- Parliament can only modify the financial thresholds for appeals to the Supreme Court in certain civil matters.
- In response, the Supreme Court has additional authority and a wide range of appellate jurisdiction to support its effective operation.
- Being courts of record, the Supreme Court and the High Courts have the authority to penalize for contempt directed at judges or the judiciary.
Independence & Impartiality of Indian Judiciary
The independence of the judiciary is essential for the sake of justice. To make a decision that appears rational, the court should be free from interference from the legislature and the executive branch. Judges can have been biased in some way when rendering a fair decision in an intervention case. Other than that, it’s difficult to come up with a way to strengthen the independence of Indian courts and shield them from the other two institutions.
Key Takeaways:
- Judges and the judiciary as a whole must be impartial and independent of one another, as well as of any other influences.
- They ought to be free from any improper influence when carrying out their judicial responsibilities.
- The general public and other stakeholders should have confidence that their cases will be decided impartially and in compliance with the law.
- There are several sources of influence. The causes might include self-interest, the media, individual litigants, certain pressure organizations, illegal executive or legislative pressure, or other judges, especially more senior judges.
- According to the theory of the “constituent mechanism,” the independence of the judiciary is determined by the independence of its judges.
- Judges’ impartiality and the independence of the judiciary are two different concepts; the latter refers to the stakeholders that make up the institution, while the former refers to the institution itself.