Question

Correct the incorrect statement:
In some countries there are constitutional and legal arrangements whereby political weaker sections and women are represented in the legislatures and judiciary.​

Answer 1

Answer:

LawTeacher logo

Disclaimer: This essay has been written by a law student and not by our expert law writers. View examples of our professional work here.

Free Law Essays

Administrative Law

Legislative Executive and Judicial Functions in India

Info: 3342 words (13 pages) Essay

Published: 26th Aug 2021

Reference this

Jurisdiction / Tag(s): Indian law

Share this:

Separation of powers, a term coined by French political Enlightenment thinker Baron de Montesquieu is a model for the governance of democratic states. There are three distinct activities in every government through which the will of the people are expressed. These are the legislative, executive and judicial functions of the government. Corresponding to these three activities are three organs of the government, namely the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The legislature makes laws, the executive enforces them and the judiciary applies them to the specific cases arising out of the breach of law. Thus, it has become a model for the governance of democratic States. This model is also known as Trias Politica, which in the non-political context means ‘separation of duties’ which, for example, includes the segregation of accounting and custodial functions.

The model of the separation of Powers was first developed by the Greeks and came into prominence through its use by the Roman Republic. The doctrine of Separation of Powers was outlined in the Constitution of the Roman Republic. Thus, it has come down the ages and can now be seen in a large number of countries throughout the world.

The proponents of the separation of powers believe that it protects democracy and forestalls tyranny. Whereas, the others say that there occurs considerable overlap of powers in parliamentary democracies. If we toe the middle line, we can observe that the Doctrine of Separation of Powers is like any other system with both merits as well as demerits. Thus, across the world, there isn’t any democracy with absolute separation of powers or complete absence of it. “This doctrine (of separation of powers) has got not only relevance to the question of separation of judiciary from the legislature and the executive, it has got a vital bearing upon the whole question of federalism,” said Brajeshwar Prasad on May 30, 1949, participating in the Constituent Assembly’s discussion.

Lord Acton had once aptly stated, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. [2] ” Separation of power is a way of restraining the amount of power in the hands of any group or faction, making its abuse more difficult. “The premise behind the separation of powers is that when a single person or group has a large amount of power, they can become dangerous to citizens. [3] ” Therefore, separation of powers limits the unlimited exercise of power by any branch of the government. This doctrine also helps in checking corruption and unlawful activities against the interests of the common man whom the government is supposed to serve. Each organ while performing its activities tends to interfere in the sphere of working of another functionary because a strict demarcation of functions is not possible when it comes to dealing with the general public. Thus, even when acting in ambit of their own power, overlapping functions tend to appear amongst these organs. Thus, each organ will impose ‘checks and balances’ on the other.

In India, a lot of the present debate on the separation of powers is due to the active steps that the judiciary is taking to redress the sufferings of the common man. But behind the present brouhaha over the issue of judicial ac­tivism, what is often lost sight of is the politics of a turf-war among members of a troika who are also partners in running the Indian state. Although the Constitution mandates the separation of the judiciary from the executive and makes par­liamentary proceedings immune from court jurisdiction, experts from all the three wings agree that instead of any rigid distribu­tion of powers, a system of checks and balances should operate. Within this delicate system, the interests of the judiciary, the executive and the legislature sometimes converge, as well as clash.