Doctrine of Judicial Review and Prospective Overruling

Doctrine of Judicial Review

Judicial Review refers to supervising the exercise of power by the judiciary of other government coordinating bodies with a view to ensuring that they remain within the limits set by the Constitution on their powers.

It is the court’s right to review legislative and executive decisions, and even review judicial acts. It is the power to scrutinize the validity of legislation, or any practice, whether or not it is legitimate.

Judicial review doctrine is based on the principle of rule of law and separation of powers. Judicial review is the process for testing and balancing the separation of powers.

The Theory of Judicial Review’s key purposes are as follows;

to determine the unconstitutionality of Legislative Acts

to maintain supremacy of the Constitutional Law

to protect the Fundamental Rights

to maintain federal equilibrium between Centre and the States

to check arbitrariness, unjust harassing and unconstitutional laws

Doctrine of Judicial Review

The Concept of Judicial Review is the basic principle of the Constitution in India. Although there is no explicit provision in the Indian Constitution for judicial review, it is an integral part of our Constitution.

In India, judicial power is a power given to the court to create a mechanism of regulation and balance between the legislature and the executive.

There are various provisions in the Indian Constitution explicitly laying down the power of judicial review to the courts, such as Articles 13, 32, 131-136, 141, 143, 226, 227, 245, 246 and 372.

The Supreme Court of India has declared it as Supreme Court’s and High Court’s power as a fundamental constitutional structure which cannot be taken away by a Constitutional amendment.

If any legislative act / executive order of either state government or central government is found to be in violation of the Constitution, it will be declared unconstitutional during the judicial review.

Doctrine of Prospective Overruling 

The Doctrine of Prospective Overruling dictates that a decision made in a particular case would have operation only in the future and will not carry any retrospective effect on any past decisions. Going by the literal meaning of this terminology, “prospective” is understood as something which only has a future operation and the term “overrule” connotes setting aside a precedent or a decision. It has been often tagged as a deviation from the Blackstonian view of Law, which postulates that a judge should follow the Doctrine of Stare Decisis in courts and that the power of a judge is restricted to declaration of law and not making the law. This view undeniably confirms the retrospective norm of a precedent.

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