Shodh Prabha: A Multidisciplinary Journal

Judicial Review and Constitutional Supremacy in India: Emerging Trends and Challenges

Judicial review is an integral part of the constitutional system of India and is an important feature for ensuring supremacy of the Constitution, Rule of Law and protection of fundamental rights. This paper focuses on the evolution of judicial review in India, its current trends and some of the key issues. It emphasizes the commitment of judiciary from being a vigilant watchdog in the early post-Independence era to its active involvement in path-breaking decisions like Kesavananda Bharati, Minerva Mills, S.R. Bommai, and K.S. Puttaswamy. The study reveals that the judicial review has been expanded with the advent of Article 21, Public Interest Litigation, environmental protection, constitutional morality and digital privacy. But, problems like judicial overreach, delay and pendency of cases, misuse of PILs, separation of powers problems and ineffective execution of the verdicts still hamper its efficiency. The paper establishes that judicial review should be independent, balanced and responsible to serve the values of the constitution and to respect democratic institutions.