I. Meaning: According to Dimock, “Judicial Review is the examination by the courts in cases actually before them, of legislative status and executive or administrative acts to determine whether or not they are prohibited by a written Constitution or are in excess of power granted by it.” “Judicial Review’ according to Ferguson and McHenry, is the power of any Court to hold unconstitutional, hence unenforceable, any law or official action that it deems to be in conflicts with the basic law of the Constitution”. In the words of Pennock and Smith, ‘Judicial review refers to powers of the courts to interpret Constitution and to declare Acts of the legislature, executive or administration void, if it finds them into conflict with the Supreme Law.

II. Power of Judicial Review of the Supreme Court:

Supreme Court as the Guardian of the Constitution: Supreme Court is the guardian and final interpreter of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is voted with the power of Judicial review. It is the power of the Supreme Court to declare any law null and void if that law violates the Constitution. Article 13, for instance, bearing the marginal headings. “Laws inconsistent with or in derogation of the Fundamental Rights” laid down that all laws in force in India immediately before the commencement of the Constitution in so far as they were on consistent with the provision of Part III shall, to the extent of such instances of inconsistency, be void. Article 12 (2) clearly says, “the state shall not make any law which takes away or abridges the rights conferred by this part and law made in contravention will be void.” It is the Supreme Court which by its judicial review will decide whether a law in connection with the Fundamental Rights is void or not. The court has the power of judicial review for which a citizen moves for the enforcement of the Fundamental Rights under Article 32 (2) of the Constitution, when the Court is so moved, it will have to decide whether any legislation or executive action of the Union or of a State violates a Fundamental Right, and if so it will “issue direction or writs, including writs in the nature of Habeas Corpus, Mandamus, Prohibition, Quo-warranto and Certiorari, whichever may be appropriate for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred by this part.”

Under Article 245 the Supreme Court can review the extent of law made by Legislatures of States. Further, Article 246 (3) provides that the legislature of any State has exclusive power to make laws for any subject of the State List. This means that if Parliament ever made a law on any such subject, except in the time of emergency, it shall be void. This again could be decided by the Supreme Court alone, whether or not some provisions of the law of the State Legislatures are repugnant to the provisions of the Parliamentary law. Under Art. 254, our Supreme Court can also decide any inconsistency between the law made by Parliament and laws made by Legislatures of the States.

III. Importance of the Power of Judicial Review:

1. Judicial Review is implicit in the case of a written Constitution: In India there is a written Constitution and in the written Constitution the wording and language is sometimes technical which is difficult to understand for a common man. So for the proper interpretation of the Constitution’s the power of judicial review is necessary.

2. Judicial Review is necessary for Protecting the Civil Liberties: It has rightly been said that the rights and liberties of the citizens are not unlimited. So, for the safety and security of the State and keeping in view the public interests, the government may impose some limitations on them. Whether these limitations are just or unjust, it is the jurisdiction and duty of the court to decide which can be done only through the power of Judicial Review.

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