Integrity Score 405
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My Years in the Supreme Court continues.....
Apart from tribunals which were clothed with statutory power to pass final orders, the Constitution had ordained that elections to Parliament or State legislatures could be called into question only by an election petition. The Election Commission set up election tribunals to decide and hear these petitions and pass final orders on them. It was argued that no appeal lay to the Supreme Court against such orders. This time there seemed to be an apparent clash between two provisions of the Constitution. Once again we decided that the general power to grant special leave to appeal overrides the special provision about election petitions.
An election cannot be called into question, we agreed, except through an election petition but once the Election Tribunal has made a determination or adjudication on the matter, the power of the Supreme Court to interfere by way of special leave can always be exercised. By thus interpreting its powers widely—and I am sure wisely—the Supreme Court was able to bring order in a field where citizens’ vital rights were deeply involved.
To allow the election law to be interpreted independently by scores of election tribunals would have greatly endangered the democratic process in the country. Similarly if each industrial disputes tribunals had been allowed to determine the questions brought before it without interference by the Supreme Court, confusion would have reigned supreme in a field concerning the rights and interests of millions of employees.
To be continued...