{"id":105278,"date":"2026-05-27T11:16:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T05:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=105278"},"modified":"2026-05-27T11:16:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T05:46:26","slug":"article-142-and-supreme-courts-extraordinary-constitutional-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/article-142-and-supreme-courts-extraordinary-constitutional-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Article 142 and Complete Justice: Supreme Court\u2019s Extraordinary Constitutional Power"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Article 142 Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court recently took suo motu cognisance of two road accidents in November 2025 that claimed 34 lives, and in the case In Re: <\/span><b><i>Phalodi Accident vs. NHAI and Others<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2025), elevated the Right to Safe Travel on National Highways as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court exercised its extraordinary power under <\/span><b>Article 142<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to deliver complete justice \u2014 issuing wide-ranging directives to the government. This has renewed debate about the scope, necessity, and limits of Article 142.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Background \u2014 Road Safety Crisis in India<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court&#8217;s intervention was prompted by alarming road safety statistics that made judicial inaction unconscionable:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Highways comprise only 2% of India&#8217;s total roads but account for 30% of all road fatalities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2025 alone, National Highways saw approximately 26,770 deaths in the first six months.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite a 11% decline in fatalities compared to 2024, the numbers remain unacceptably high.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government aims to <\/span><b>reduce road accidents by 50% by 2030<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through a strategy focused on the four Es \u2014 Education, Engineering, Enforcement, and Emergency Medical Services.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What is Article 142 \u2014 The Power of Complete Justice<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Article 142(1) empowers the Supreme Court to pass any decree or order necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it \u2014 even if existing laws or procedural rules do not provide a specific remedy.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This power acts as a &#8220;constitutional safety valve&#8221; to fill legal gaps and prevent injustice.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Nature of the Power<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The power under Article 142 is residuary in nature \u2014 it exists to address situations where ordinary law is silent, inadequate, or incapable of providing relief.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is inherent to the Supreme Court&#8217;s role as the highest court and custodian of the Constitution \u2014 not conferred by statute.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It goes beyond strict procedural constraints to prevent injustice or abuse of process.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two key conditions for invoking Article 142 are \u2014 a manifest error and a situation where non-exercise would lead to a travesty of justice.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Key Judicial Interpretations<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Delhi Judicial Service Association vs. State of Gujarat (1991)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 The power to do complete justice is &#8220;entirely of a different level and of a different quality&#8221; \u2014 restrictions in ordinary laws cannot limit this constitutional power.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Canara Bank vs. Debasis Das (2003)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 The Constitution intends to deliver substantive justice \u2014 removal of injustices \u2014 through either legal or natural justice. Where legal justice fails, natural justice must prevail.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Hitesh Bhatnagar vs. Deepa Bhatnagar (2011)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 Recognised the extraordinary nature of this jurisdiction and held that extraordinary care and caution must be observed while exercising it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Why is Complete Justice Necessary<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A natural question arises \u2014 can justice ever be incomplete? The answer lies in the gap between law and justice.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laws are created at a particular point in time and may become inadequate as new and evolving social realities emerge \u2014 such as live-in relationships, matters relating to homosexuality, environmental crises, or digital privacy violations.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In such situations, the Supreme Court \u2014 as the custodian of the Constitution \u2014 must proactively fill the gap to ensure justice is actually delivered, not just procedurally processed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Article 142 is therefore the constitutional mechanism that allows the Court to ensure that formal legal justice does not become a barrier to actual substantive justice.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Can High Courts Also Deliver Complete Justice<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Anil Kumar Jain vs. Maya Jain (2009), the Supreme Court held that the powers of High Courts under Article 226 are not at par with those of the Supreme Court under Article 142.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, High Courts can still deliver complete justice \u2014 albeit in a more circumscribed manner.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The distinction is one of degree and scope, not of fundamental principle \u2014 justice is always intended to be complete at every level of the judicial hierarchy.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Article 142 and the Separation of Powers Debate<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>The Criticism \u2014 Judicial Overreach<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The exercise of Article 142 is frequently criticised as judicial overreach \u2014 the argument being that the Court bypasses established laws and procedures and encroaches upon the domain of the Executive and Legislature, violating the principle of separation of powers.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Critics argue that it allows unelected judges to make policy decisions that should properly belong to elected representatives.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>The Counter-Argument \u2014 Judicial Activism<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proponents argue that such criticism lacks rationale.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Judicial activism \u2014 which Article 142 enables \u2014 involves the proactive and progressive interpretation of laws and constitutional provisions to deliver justice in rapidly changing social, economic, political, and value systems.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The constitutional intent of Article 142 is to deliver justice \u2014 social, economic, political, or legal \u2014 and not to usurp legislative or executive power.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court exercises this power precisely when the other two branches have failed to act or when laws have become inadequate.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">Source:<\/b> <strong><a style=\"font-size: inherit;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/the-judiciarys-role-in-complete-justice\/article71026555.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article 142 and Complete Justice empowers the Supreme Court to deliver extraordinary remedies for ensuring justice beyond procedural limitations in exceptional cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":105301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[179,60,22,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-105278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"tag-article-142","9":"tag-mains-articles","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs-tag","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105278"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105300,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105278\/revisions\/105300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}