MPSC 2022 Prelims Q60: According to the provision of which Article of the

MPSC 2022 Prelims Paper-I · Question 60 of 100

State Services Preliminary Examination 2022, held 21 August 2022. Transcribed from the commission's own booklet (संच A); answer as per the official MPSC final answer key.

According to the provision of which Article of the Constitution can the President of India ask for advice from the Supreme Court ?

(1)Article 142
(2)Article 145
(3)Article 147
(4)Article 143

Answer

(4)

Why

Correct — option (4), Article 143. The article is headed 'Power of President to consult Supreme Court' and it creates what is known as the advisory jurisdiction of the Court, a jurisdiction quite separate from the original jurisdiction in disputes between governments and from the appellate jurisdiction over judgments of the High Courts. Its first clause provides that if at any time it appears to the President that a question of law or of fact has arisen, or is likely to arise, which is of such a nature and of such public importance that it is expedient to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court upon it, he may refer the question to the Court for consideration, and the Court may, after such hearing as it thinks fit, report its opinion to the President. Its second clause covers disputes arising out of treaties, agreements and similar instruments entered into before the commencement of the Constitution, which are otherwise excluded from the Court's original jurisdiction. Three features of this jurisdiction are what the Commission actually tests. The first is who may invoke it: the reference is made by the President, which in practice means on the advice of the Council of Ministers, and no private party and no other authority can ask the Court for an advisory opinion. The second is that the Court's answer is an opinion and not a judgment: it is not binding on the President, who is free to act on it or not, and it does not have the force of a decision delivered in a contested case, although in practice such opinions carry great weight and are followed. The third is that under the first clause the Court has a discretion. The word used is that the Court 'may' report its opinion, and it has on occasion declined to answer a reference, holding the question referred to be unsuitable for an advisory opinion; under the second clause, dealing with the pre-Constitution instruments, the language is mandatory and the Court is to report. A reference under this article must be heard by a bench of at least five judges, because Article 145 lays down that minimum both for cases involving a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution and for the hearing of any reference under Article 143. The device has been used sparingly across the life of the Constitution, on questions such as the status of the Preamble in connection with the transfer of territory, on the validity of proposed legislation, and on questions arising out of disputes between States, and each such reference is known by the subject to which it relates. Option (4) is the answer.

Why the others are wrong

(1)Article 142 — Article 142 is about the enforcement of the Supreme Court's own decrees and orders, and it contains the celebrated provision that the Court may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it, such a decree being enforceable throughout the territory of India. That power belongs to the Court and is exercised by it on its own motion in cases before it; it is not a channel through which the President can seek anything from the Court, and the direction of the relationship is the reverse of what the stem describes. The article also empowers the Court, subject to law made by Parliament, to secure the attendance of persons, the discovery of documents and the punishment of contempt of itself. It is worth learning alongside Article 143 precisely because the two are adjacent and are both about extraordinary powers, but the one concerns what the Court may do to give effect to justice in a pending matter and the other concerns what the President may ask the Court to advise upon.
(2)Article 145 — Article 145 deals with the rules of court. It empowers the Supreme Court, with the approval of the President, to make rules regulating the practice and procedure of the Court, covering such matters as the persons who may practise before it, the procedure for appeals, and the conditions on which it may review its own decisions. Its connection with the answer is real but indirect and is worth knowing for that reason: the article lays down that the minimum number of judges who are to sit for deciding a case involving a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution, or for hearing a reference under Article 143, shall be five. So Article 145 tells us how a reference is to be heard, while Article 143 is the article that permits the reference to be made in the first place. A candidate who half-remembers the connection between the two may mark this option; the way to separate them is to ask which article confers the power and which regulates its exercise.
(3)Article 147 — Article 147 is an interpretation clause and confers no power on anyone. It provides that in the chapter on the Union judiciary, and in the chapter on relations between the Union and the States, references to a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution are to be read as including references to a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the Government of India Act, 1935, and of the instruments amending or supplementing it, including the Indian Independence Act. It is a technical provision carrying forward the constitutional questions of the pre-Constitution era into the new framework, and it has no bearing on advisory opinions. Options of this kind are placed in a set to test whether a candidate is guessing among nearby numbers, and the way through is to place the run of articles by subject: the composition and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in the one-hundred-and-twenties to one-hundred-and-forties, the advisory jurisdiction at 143, and the procedural and interpretive provisions after it.

Concept

The Supreme Court of India exercises several distinct jurisdictions and the Commission tests the ability to tell them apart. Its original jurisdiction under Article 131 covers disputes between the Government of India and one or more States, or between States, and is exclusive to it. Its writ jurisdiction under Article 32 allows a person to move it directly for the enforcement of a fundamental right, which Ambedkar called the heart and soul of the Constitution. Its appellate jurisdiction runs against judgments of the High Courts in constitutional, civil and criminal matters under Articles 132 to 134, and Article 136 adds a discretionary power to grant special leave to appeal from almost any court or tribunal. Article 137 gives it the power to review its own judgments. Article 143 supplies the advisory jurisdiction, under which the President may refer a question of law or fact of public importance for the Court's opinion; the opinion is advisory only and does not bind, and the Court may decline to answer a reference under the first clause of the article. Article 141 provides that the law declared by the Supreme Court is binding on all courts within India, and Article 142 empowers the Court to make any order necessary for doing complete justice in a matter before it. Read together, these articles describe a court that hears disputes, protects rights, corrects lower courts, advises the executive when asked, and declares law that binds the whole judicial system.

This is another article-number question, and like its neighbours in this paper it offers a cluster of nearby numbers rather than four unrelated ones, so success depends on being able to place a provision within a block rather than on recalling a number in isolation. The Union judiciary occupies a well-defined run of articles, and a candidate who has learnt that run in order — the establishment and composition of the Court, the appointment and tenure of judges, the original jurisdiction, the appeals, special leave, the binding force of its law, the power to do complete justice, the advisory jurisdiction, the rules of court, and the interpretation clause — can locate an unfamiliar provision to within two or three articles and then decide between neighbours on content. The advisory jurisdiction attracts questions of its own beyond the number: whether the opinion binds the President, whether the Court must answer, who may make a reference, and how many judges must hear it. Each of those has a definite answer and each has been asked, so the article rewards being learnt in full rather than as a label attached to a number.

Key facts

Article 143 confers the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, allowing the President to refer to it a question of law or fact which has arisen or is likely to arise and which is of such public importance that it is expedient to obtain the Court's opinion.
The opinion given under Article 143 is advisory and not binding on the President, and under the first clause of the article the Court may decline to answer the reference; under the second clause, concerning pre-Constitution treaties and agreements, the Court is to report its opinion.
A reference under Article 143 must be heard by a bench of not fewer than five judges, a minimum laid down by Article 145 along with the same requirement for cases involving a substantial question of constitutional interpretation.
Article 142 empowers the Supreme Court to pass any decree or order necessary for doing complete justice in a cause or matter pending before it, and such a decree is enforceable throughout the territory of India.
Article 145 empowers the Supreme Court, with the approval of the President, to make rules regulating its practice and procedure, while Article 147 is an interpretation clause extending references to constitutional questions to include questions on the Government of India Act, 1935.

Four adjacent numbers — ask of each which way the power runs, and who is asking whom for what

Article 143 — 'Power of President to consult Supreme Court'; printed here as option (4)→The advisory jurisdiction, and the only one of the four in which the President asks anything of the Court. If it appears to the President that a question of law or of fact has arisen, or is likely to arise, of such public importance that it is expedient to obtain the Court's opinion, he may refer it, and the Court may after such hearing as it thinks fit report its opinion. Three things about it are what get examined. Only the President may invoke it, on ministerial advice, and no private party can. The answer is an OPINION and not a judgment: it does not bind the President, though in practice such opinions carry great weight. And under the first clause the word is 'may', so the Court has a discretion and has on occasion declined to answer; under the second clause, on pre-Constitution treaties and agreements, the language is mandatory. It is the option to mark

Article 142 — complete justice; printed here as option (1)→The direction of the relationship is the reverse of what the stem describes. This is a power of the COURT, exercised on its own motion in a matter already before it: the Supreme Court may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it, enforceable throughout the territory of India. It also covers securing the attendance of persons, the discovery of documents and the punishment of its own contempt. Worth learning beside the answer precisely because the two are adjacent and both concern extraordinary powers — but one is what the Court may do, the other what the President may ask

Article 145 — rules of court; printed here as option (2)→Its connection with the answer is real, which is what makes it the strongest of the three that fail. It empowers the Court, with the President's approval, to make rules regulating its practice and procedure — who may practise before it, how appeals proceed, on what conditions it may review its own decisions — and it lays down that a reference under the advisory jurisdiction must be heard by a bench of not fewer than five judges, the same minimum it sets for a substantial question of constitutional interpretation. So this article says HOW a reference is heard, while the answer is the article that permits a reference to be made at all

Article 147 — an interpretation clause; printed here as option (3)→It confers no power on anybody. It provides that in the chapter on the Union judiciary and in the chapter on relations between the Union and the States, a reference to a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution is to be read as including one on the interpretation of the Government of India Act, 1935 and the instruments amending or supplementing it, the Indian Independence Act among them — a technical provision carrying the constitutional questions of the earlier era into the new framework. Options of this kind are placed to test whether a candidate is guessing among nearby numbers

Learn the run by subject and an unfamiliar provision can be placed to within two or three articles before any option is read: the composition and jurisdiction of the Court, then the original jurisdiction over disputes between governments at Article 131, the appeals from High Courts at 132 to 134, special leave at 136, review of its own judgments at 137, the binding force of the law it declares at 141, complete justice at 142, the advisory jurisdiction at 143, the rules of court at 145, the interpretation clause at 147. The advisory device has been used sparingly across the life of the Constitution, and it attracts questions well beyond its number — whether the opinion binds, whether the Court must answer, who may make a reference, and how many judges must sit.

Study next

The jurisdictions of the Supreme Court — original, writ, appellate, advisory and review — with the article conferring eachArticle 143 in detail, including the discretion of the Court to decline a reference and the non-binding character of its opinionArticle 32 and the writs, and the comparison with the High Courts' wider writ jurisdiction under Article 226Appointment, tenure and removal of Supreme Court judges, and the collegium system as it developed through the judges casesJudicial review, the basic structure doctrine, and the relationship between Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles as worked out by the Court

Common traps

Confusing Article 142, which lets the Court do complete justice in a pending matter, with Article 143, under which the President seeks the Court's opinion
Assuming that an opinion given under Article 143 binds the President, when it is advisory and the executive is free to act on it or not
Assuming the Court must answer every reference, when under the first clause of the article it has a discretion and has occasionally declined
Learning article numbers singly rather than as ordered blocks, which leaves a candidate unable to choose between adjacent numbers in an option set built from them

The Union judiciary is examined by MPSC through article numbers, through the distinctions between its several jurisdictions, through the appointment and removal of judges, and through the leading doctrines the Court has developed. Article-number items of the kind asked here are the most frequent, and they are almost always built from adjacent numbers, so the preparation that works is to learn the sequence of articles in Part V with a phrase attached to each rather than to memorise isolated numbers. The advisory jurisdiction also appears as a conceptual question — whether the opinion binds, who may refer, whether the Court must answer — and as a current affairs question whenever a fresh reference is made, since a Presidential reference is a rare and newsworthy event. Preparing the article and the concept together therefore covers all the forms in which the topic can appear.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
An opinion given by the Supreme Court on a reference made to it by the President under Article 143 is
- (a)binding on the President and on all courts in India
- (b)advisory in nature and not binding on the President
- (c)binding only on the High Courts and not on the Supreme Court itself
- (d)binding on Parliament but not on the executive
Answer(b) Advisory in nature and not binding on the President — the article provides that the Court shall report its opinion to the President, and an opinion is not a judgment delivered in a contested case, so it does not bind. The executive is free to act upon it or to decline to do so, though in practice such opinions carry great authority and are followed. The Court also retains a discretion under the first clause of the article and may decline to answer a reference altogether.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which Article of the Constitution empowers the Supreme Court to pass any decree or order necessary for doing complete justice in a cause or matter pending before it ?
- (a)Article 141
- (b)Article 142
- (c)Article 143
- (d)Article 145
Answer(b) Article 142 — it provides that the Supreme Court may in the exercise of its jurisdiction pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it, and that such a decree is enforceable throughout the territory of India. Article 141 makes the law declared by the Supreme Court binding on all courts within India, Article 143 provides for the President's reference for an advisory opinion, and Article 145 empowers the Court to make rules of practice and procedure.