17 Feb Unitary Judiciary of a federal governance : An analysis in special context of India

Unitary Judiciary of a federal governance- Today Current Affairs

Context : Indian Judicial system is a centralized Judicial system . An imbalance is there in Indian Judicial system which should be addressed by supreme court through empowering High Courts again

Today Current Affairs

Introduction : India is a federal governance up to a certain extent. However in normal conditions, the model of India governance is more federal and India is continuously trending towards federalism . Federalism is the fundamental sy=tructure of the constitution. But the Judicial system of India is more unitarray . The essential characteristic of federalism is the distribution of limited executive, legislative and judicial authority among bodies which are coordinated with and independent of each other. Therefore, Indian high courts should be strengthened more for federalism . 

What is Federalism : Federalism is a midpoint between unitarism and confederalism.  Unitarism means that all the power should be centralized in one hand or supreme power is given to a single authority . Confederalism means that the lower units also have some powers as the center has. For example in America, states have equal power (almost) as the central government . But after the Civil war in America, even the center has become more strong . 

The idea of federalism is that all the states should enjoy their own equal political rights and finally all the states should have cooperation with the central government. 

Nature of the Indian Judicial system : The Hindu Analysis

• For the federal state , Judicial system of the country must be federal . federal Judicial system is essential requirement of the federal state . Dr Amebedkar also states in this regard in the constitutional assembly that The Indian Federation though a dual polity has no dual judiciary at all. The High Courts and the Supreme Court form one single integrated judiciary having jurisdiction and providing remedies in all cases arising under the constitutional law, the civil law or the criminal law.”
• The Indian Supreme court is newly created . Most of the high courts were earlier created . Some of the high courts in India have been created before 1860 also. By Government of Indian Act , a federal court was constituted. The modern supreme court is constituted after implementation of Indian constitution 
• However many times , the honorable supreme court has clearly stated that high courts are not just subordinate bodies and high court Judges are not subordinate Judges of the Supreme court . Many people like Justice M.C. Chagla and Justice P.V. Rajamannar rejected the offer of the Judge of the Supreme court but both of them rejected this offer and became the chief Justices of Bombay and Madras High Courts respectively . Many times the supreme court declared that it is superior only in applite matters . A delicate balance is required to be maintained between the Supreme Court and the High Courts in order for the constitutional structure dreamt of by B.R. Ambedkar to work.

Challenges for  the federal structure of the Indian Judiciary : The Hindu Analysis

• In collegium system the Judges of the supreme court who are in collegium , they have power to appoint and transfer the  judges of high court 
• Parallel Judicial systems of the court and tribunals provide for direct appeals to the Supreme Court, bypassing the High Courts. Today Current Affairs.
  
• The Supreme Court has been liberal in entertaining cases pertaining to trifling matters.

Impact of the central Judiciary : The Hindu Analysis

• The balance of the powers between the high court and the supreme court is required . The more centralization of the judiciary, the weaker federal structure, which is against the fundamental structure of the constitution 
• The study of the federal countries like America and Nigeria shows that , many times, federal courts struck down the state legislature through the power of Judicial review . Supreme court will always favor the rights of the federal or central government 
• In case of India the collegium system establish full control of the Supreme court over high court 
• If the supreme court acts as an aggressive interventionist, it will bring an evil effect on the country . In 2018 some petitions directly filed appealed to supreme court for Diwali celebration This led to an uproar because people in South India celebrate Deepavali in the morning. While in North India people celebrated Diwali in Night . Another example could be seen regarding the height of the Dahi Handi 
• Generally the supreme court should not intervene in those matters which are clearly of local importance, having no constitutional ramifications. 
• Almost in every matter the Supreme Court entertains an appeal against a High Court decision. Supreme court should entertain only those appeal against of High court which are necessary of national interest 
• Every time Supreme court entertain public interest litigation on those matters which are should be dealt by the High Court, 
• The creation of parallel courts and tribunals are also dangerous for federal structure like Competition Commission, or the company law tribunals, or the consumer courts.In all these cases, the High Courts are bypassed.
• In this way we can easily imagine The effect . it will be weakening the authority of the High Courts or the possibility of a tendency towards subservience or apathy of the judges of the High Courts.

Today Current Affairs

Conclusion : 

For democracy and the maintenance of the federal structure of the constitution a balance between the rights of high court and supreme court are mandatory. Definitely honorable supreme court also understands the importance of the high courts and the significance of federalism for India . Therefore, court as well as government should take some steps in this regard so that our democracy and the federal structure could be more powerful 

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Source : The Hindu (Editorial)

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Dr. Anshul Bajpai

Plutus IAS Current Affairs Team Member