Court – Source of Law

Many times, there comes a situation over which earlier to that no one has paid heed into. No one has thought that anything of such nature can also come into picture and we should have done something about the same in advance.

To avoid the situations like above, the framers of the Indian Constitution inserted Article 141 in the Indian Constitution. They were of the view that for once and all there comes a situation when issues can’t be dealt with by any existing law and would be of such nature that ignoring the same will amount to great injustice, in those circumstances, the man shall not be left with his scars feeling pity on him. Rather, there should be a mechanism which shall immediately come up to rescue him and shall provide a shelter of justice.

There have been various instances where the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has stood up to this thought process. 

Be it the case of Vishaka v State of Rajasthan^[1] where the Hon’ble Supreme Court laid down the guidelines to protect a woman from sexual harassment at its workplace or be it the Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India^[2] case where the Hon’ble Court declared that Right to Livelihood is part and parcel of the right to life. 

The Hon’ble Court standing up with these principles have gone leaps and bounds protecting the rights of human civilization as well as of the animals and nature (MC Mehta Cases). These all were done and guaranteed to us by the Hon’ble Court when either the interpretation of laws was required or there were no laws to deal with such situations.

That is why Article 141 exists in the Constitution of India and that is why so much of power has been given to the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India vide this article mandating all to comply with the same.

This is the reason that this article has been included in the basic structure doctrine along with Article 32 and Article 136.

Article 141 of the Indian Constitution reads as follows:

Thus, in regard to Article 141 read along with the Vishaka and Maneka Gandhi case it can be said that the Judgements passed by the Apex Courts act as sources of Law in the form of Precedents for all the Courts below it and therefore, all the High Courts and Lower Courts are not obliged but bound by the Indian Constitution to pass Judgements in consonance of the Apex Court’s Judgements.

^[1] Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, [AIR 1997 SC 3011]

^[2] Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, [AIR 1978 SC 597]