Article 142

 

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·       Article 142 provide a unique power to the Supreme Court, to do complete justice between the parties, i.e., where at times law or statute may not provide a remedy, the Court can extend itself to put an end to a dispute in a manner which would befits the facts of the case.

·       Subject to the provisions of any law made in this behalf by Parliament, the Supreme Court shall, as respects the whole of the territory of India, have all and every power to make any order for the purpose of securing the attendance of any person, the discovery or production of any documents, or the investigation or punishment of any contempt of itself.

·       Article 142(1) states that The Supreme Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it, and any decree so passed or order so made shall be enforceable throughout the territory of India in such manner as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament and, until provision in that behalf is so made, in such manner as the President may by order prescribe.

Previous judgment of Supreme Court under article 142

·       The Supreme Court had provide relief to the thousands of people affected by the Bhopal gas tragedy by using Article 142 in 1989. Applying the provision in the case called the Union Carbide case the court had awarded compensation to the victims, observing that to do complete justice, it could even override parliamentary laws.

·       In 2014, Article 142 was used to cancel allocation of coal blocks granted from 1993 onwards, without any specific finding on the wrongdoing by those who were allotted these blocks.

·       Article 142 has been used for restoring the white marble of the Taj Mahal and for constituting the Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee to probe the 2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing scandal.

·       The court had used Article 142 in its December 2016 judgment banning the sale of alcohol within a distance of 500 metres on national and state highways across the country. The ban was supposed to be implemented from 1 April 2017.

·       In 2019, in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute SC ordered the government to allot 5 acres to the Sunni Central Waqf Board out of the 68 acres within the city of Ayodhya.