Key facts

  • Articles 124-147 form the Union Judiciary core; Article 141 binds all courts to Supreme Court law.
  • Article 32 enforces Fundamental Rights; Article 226 is wider because it also covers other legal rights.
  • Article 136 special leave is discretionary; it is not an ordinary appeal as of right.
  • NJAC was struck down in 2015 because judicial independence was treated as part of basic structure.
  • Article 142 enables complete justice in pending matters, but it does not make the Court a legislature.

Key Points at a Glance

  1. 1

    Articles 124-147 form the Union Judiciary core; Article 141 binds all courts to Supreme Court law.

  2. 2

    Article 32 enforces Fundamental Rights; Article 226 is wider because it also covers other legal rights.

  3. 3

    Judicial review is basic structure after Kesavananda Bharati, Minerva Mills and L. Chandra Kumar.

  4. 4

    Article 136 special leave is discretionary; it is not an ordinary appeal as of right.

  5. 5

    NJAC was struck down in 2015 because judicial independence was treated as part of basic structure.

  6. 6

    PIL relaxed standing for genuine public causes, but Balwant Singh Chaufal warned against misuse.

  7. 7

    Article 142 enables complete justice in pending matters, but it does not make the Court a legislature.

  8. 8

    Review, activism and PIL overlap in practice, yet they are conceptually different for Prelims.

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Constitutional map of the Union Judiciary

  • Part V, Chapter IV is the core frame: Articles 124 to 147 create the Supreme Court, define its composition, jurisdiction, powers, rule-making authority and interpretive finality. UPSC commonly asks whether a power flows from Article 32, 136, 141 or 142, so keep the article cluster as one connected map, not loose facts.
  • Article 124 establishes the Court: it provides for a Chief Justice of India and other judges as Parliament may prescribe. The present sanctioned strength is statutory, not fixed in the Constitution; the Supreme Court Number of Judges Act, 1956 has been amended over time, and after the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Ordinance, 2026, the sanctioned strength is 38 judges including the Chief Justice of India.
  • Integrated judiciary is the design: India does not have separate federal and state court hierarchies for constitutional law. The Supreme Court sits at the apex, High Courts supervise state judicial systems, and Article 141 makes the law declared by the Supreme Court binding on all courts in India.
  • Independence is protected structurally: judges enjoy security of tenure, charged expenditure, restrictions on post-retirement practice before courts, and a difficult removal process under Article 124(4). These protections matter because judicial review requires institutional distance from the executive and legislature.
  • Court of record status under Article 129: the Supreme Court can punish for contempt and its records have evidentiary value. Do not confuse this with Article 141; one concerns status and contempt, the other concerns binding law.
  • Separation of powers is balanced, not watertight: courts review legality and constitutionality, but they usually avoid substituting policy preferences for elected choices. The exam trap is to read judicial review as judicial supremacy over every public question; in reality, review is strongest when rights, federal limits, constitutional procedure or basic structure are at stake.
  • High-yield institutional distinction: the Supreme Court has original, appellate, advisory, review and curative functions. These are not ranks of importance; they are different doors through which a matter enters or returns to the Court.

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PredictedPredicted Questions

Use these prompts to test answer structure before moving to practice.

1MCQConsider the following statements about Article 32 and Article 226: 1. Article 32 is itself a Fundamental Right. 2. Article 226 may be used for enforcement of legal rights other than Fundamental Rights. 3. Article 32 gives High Courts power to issue writs. Which statements are correct?1 marks · 50 words
  1. A1 and 2 onlyCorrect
  2. B2 and 3 only
  3. C1 and 3 only
  4. D1, 2 and 3

Explanation

Statements 1 and 2 are correct. Article 32 is the Supreme Court route for Fundamental Rights; High Court writ power is under Article 226, not Article 32.

~50 words · 1 marks