Basics:
India has adopted an integrated judicial system where Supreme Court has dual role-
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- Appellate court: Deals with cases of appeal.
- Constitutional court: Deals with substantial question of law which involves interpretation of law, judicial review, cases related to constitution.
Issues:
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- The appellate role of SC has affected its role to discharge duty as the constitutional court as the cases related to constitutional matters remain pending for years.
- This has serious consequences on the constitutional governance of the country.
- According to reports, SC in first two decades dealt with good number of cases related to constitutional matters. Thereafter there has been a decline and now delay.
- Some pending cases of constitutional importance like Sabarimala case, CAA Bill, Electoral bond case etc.
Reason behind relegating constitutional matters are:
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- Too much preference to Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and Special Leave Petition (SLP).
- Appeal after appeal culture as people are not satisfied with the judgments by lower courts.
- Weak institutional capacity of Supreme Court.
National Court of Appeal (NCA)
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- It aims to deal with the appeal cases from HCs and SC will only deal with constitutional matters.
- Beneficial:
- Decrease in backlog cases in SC which are mainly due to its appellate jurisdiction.
- NCA will have benches throughout the country which will make justice cheaper and more accessible.
- It will allow SC to focus more on matters related to national importance, FRs and any other case of constitutional importance.
- Some countries like US, Soth Africa, France and Ireland have separate constitutional courts and appellate courts.
Way forward:
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- Focus on addressing the root cause of backlog cases in the higher judiciary
- Constitutional cases should be given priority
- Special Leave Petition (SLP) should be applied sparingly (Supreme Court)
- Not getting influenced form politics
