Can The Indian Judiciary Advance As A Court Of Good Governance?

Kamiya Gupta, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University

ABSTRACT

Ever since the World Bank put “governance” on its agenda as a development model in 1989, the concept has gained much clout. However, it is imperative to understand that “good governance” was coveted ever since the interplay of mankind and polity spearheaded, by virtue of which, some forms of government were organically understood to be more citizen-centric; Triunity of democracy, rule of law, and liberty can be seen as a crucial index of the network between civil society and governance in this regard. It is a popular belief that democracies are the patrons of preservation of individual and civil liberties, thence “rule of law” has been accorded such pre-eminence in a civil society which reiterates the overarching authority of law. A qualm corresponding to this notion surfaces when the efficacy and power of such forms of governance are examined, which directs us at understanding the synergy between judiciary and governance. In order to define the scope of research, the focus will be laid on India as a developing nation which is still in the process of imbibing its good governance initiatives to ascertain the role and the leeway that can be given to Judiciary as the guardian of law and the ultimate defender of individual rights and liberty to counterbalance the power-play and ensure smooth functioning of a good governance model in the nation.

Of late, a new global trend has emerged wherein the courts have assumed a proactive role to safeguard citizens’ rights enlarging the scope of the Constitution, even if it seldom demanded intervening in the aegis of governance, blurring the lines of separation of powers. However, this booming popularity has also been offset because a developing democratic society is bound to encourage the growth of a plethora of different entities tasked with achieving the goals of good governance, which will be critically evaluated throughout the paper. All in all, the establishment of India's good governance court provides a helpful prism through which to evaluate judicial power's recent global expansion, especially in developing countries, and to deduce whether and to what extent it is viable for the judiciary to pragmatically advance as the court of good governance.