Article 142

✅Article 142 of Constitution of India deals with Enforcement of decrees and orders of the Supreme Court.

✅It states that the Apex Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing “complete justice” in any case pending before it.

✅Such orders of the Supreme Court are enforceable throughout the territory of India as prescribed by any law made by Parliament or order of the President of India.

✅ Article 142 enables superseding the executive and the legislative. 

✅From Article 142, the Supreme Court derives overarching powers to perform the functions of Executive and legislative in order to bring about complete justice.

✅In this pursuit, Article 142 is supplemented by the Articles 32 (Right to constitutional remedies), Article 141 (The law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within the territory of India) and Article 136 (Special Leave petition).

✅ This is often termed as judicial activism. To do “complete justice” it has often overridden the laws made by Parliament such as in the following cases.

▪️Union Carbide Case: 

✅In 1989, the Supreme Court invoked Article 142 to provide relief awarding the compensation of to victims affected in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

▪️Coal Block Allocation Case: 

✅In 2014, the Supreme Court used the said provision of the constitution to cancel the allocation of coal blocks granted from 1993 onwards who were guilty of wrongdoing and imposed a penalty on coal mined illegally.

▪️Ban on liquor sale on highways case: 

✅In 2016. under Article 142 the apex court banned the sale of alcohol within a stipulated distance of 500 metres form the outer edge of the highway. Such a decision was taken to avoid accidents due to drink and drive.

#polity 

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