TO GO BEYOND THE AMBIT

Abstract

Judicial activism due to one or another reason has turned out to be the pivot for a lot of controversy. Over the time, people have termed it as judicial anarchy, judicial over-activism, or judicial despotism. In ordinary parlance, the term activism means being active. Judicial activism, be it a boon or a bane, is very much required because the legislature, while enacting a law, cannot visualize all the situations which would arise in future. Changes take place in the society and new and complex situations arise giving rise to different interpretations of the laws to cater to the needs of the society and fill in the necessary gaps. In this process, judicial creativity is required which is often termed as judicial activism. Undoubtedly, the Indian judiciary has shown unprecedented initiative during the last few years. There is no universal model of what constitutes judicial activism. It depends on the prevailing conditions in a particular country. Nonetheless perfection is not a common attribute of our race and justice is dispensed by judges who are, equally, a part of this race. They are not gifted with infallibility and therefore, judicial aberrations do occur occasionally. But that is no reason for condemnation of active exercise of judicial power. There has been vociferous criticism of judicial activism. This paper attempts to identify the causes for the same and analyse to what extent does the Indian society requires it.