Ch 6Judiciary — Class 11 Political Science, concept-first.

Courts are usually pictured as places that settle disputes between individuals — a landlord against a tenant, one company against another.

In any society, disputes are bound to arise — between individuals, between groups, and between individuals or groups on one side and the government on the other.

Independence of the judiciary, stated simply, has three components. First, the other organs of government — the executive and the legislature — must not restrain the functioning of the judiciary in a…

The appointment of judges has never been free of political controversy, because it is, in a real sense, part of the political process: who sits on the Supreme Court or a High Court makes a genuine dif…

Removing a judge of the Supreme Court or a High Court is, by constitutional design, extremely difficult.

The Constitution of India sets up a single integrated judicial system. Unlike some other federal countries, where each state runs its own separate court system alongside a federal one, India has no se…

The Supreme Court of India is one of the most powerful courts anywhere in the world, but its power is not unlimited — it functions strictly within the boundaries the Constitution has drawn for it.

Original jurisdiction refers to cases that the Supreme Court can consider directly — without the case first passing through any lower court.

As you have already seen in the chapter on Fundamental Rights, any individual whose fundamental right has been violated can move the Supreme Court directly for a remedy, without first exhausting every…

The Supreme Court is the highest court of appeal in the country, and a person dissatisfied with a High Court's decision can, in principle, appeal to it.

Beyond Original and Appellate jurisdiction, the Supreme Court also holds Advisory Jurisdiction. This allows the President of India to refer any matter to the Supreme Court for its opinion, provided th…

Two terms dominate any discussion of the Indian judiciary today: judicial activism and Public Interest Litigation, or PIL (also called Social Action Litigation, SAL).

The judiciary is entrusted with protecting the rights of individuals, and the Constitution gives the Supreme Court two distinct ways of doing this.

Beyond the question of rights, the judiciary has also actively worked to prevent the Constitution from being subverted through ordinary political practice, and in doing so has drawn areas once thought…

This chapter has traced the judiciary's role within India's democratic structure — and, despite recurring tensions with the executive and the legislature, the judiciary's own prestige has grown consid…