There is a hierarchy of norms for the governance of our society and the Constitution is at the top of it. https://thewire.in/law/there-is-no-lack-of-judicial-power-in-india-just-a-refusal-to-act-on-it
Yet our Constitutional rights as citizens now appear to be unenforceable. Our elected representatives now treat the Constitution not as a normative and enforceable document but as a political document alone, a statement of intent to be enforced selectively at its discretion.
It is this approach to the Constitution that the court has been unable to correct and on which it has failed to demand accountability.
In 2023, the Supreme Court failed to protect electoral democracy, the health of our economy, our own health, federalism, and the fundamental rights of citizens.
Whether it was demonetisation and its impact on the country, the right of our elected representatives to remain in office without being subjected to Operation Lotus, or the disappearance of a state and its conversion to a Union territory, the court deferred to the wisdom of the government of the day, sometimes explicitly stating that it was not the function of the court to interfere with government policy or under the doctrine of not wanting to enter the “political thicket” laying claim to work on the theory of separation of powers.
05/01/2024