Ahmedabad: The Supreme Court is the "ultimate arbiter" of the Constitution and it will ensure laws passed by Parliament conform to the statute book and they are "faithfully obeyed", a judge of the apex court said on Saturday.
"We (SC), as a body, are given the greatest power to see that the law (enacted by Parliament) conforms to the Constitution and are faithfully obeyed. I have no doubt that this institution will always stand up to this great task," Justice Rohinton Nariman said while delivering a lecture on 'Judiciary least dangerous branch?'.
He maintained that Indian judiciary had been conferred enough power by Constitution to ensure that verdict delivered by it is enforced by the Executive.
The Constitution gives the SC the "power of complete justice in every cause of matter," and "every authority in this country is bound to enforce its judgement", he said.
Justice Nariman said being the final court, the SC has lived up to the expectations of the founding fathers of the Constitution by ensuring people's rights are protected in "both ordinary and extraordinary times".
"Not only do we have Article 32 (the right to Constitutional remedies), but also a very important Article 145(3), which, to the best of my knowledge, is not in any of other Constitution (in the world). The Article makes this branch (SC) the ultimate arbiter of the Constitution.
"A minimum of five judges will tell us what the Constitution means," he said, delivering the 11th Justice P D Desai Memorial Lecture here.
"Apart from this, the High Courts have been given vast power under Article 226, and the Supreme Court has very vast appellate jurisdiction under the Article 126, perhaps the vastest in the world," Justice Nariman said.
