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The Founding Fathers Of Our Constitution Essay

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In order to ensure that Fundamental Rights did not remain empty provisions, the founding fathers of our Constitution have made various provisions in the Constitution to maintain an independent judiciary. Articles related to Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles and independent judiciary together provide a firm constitutional basis to the growth of Public Interest Litigation in India. The founding fathers envisaged ‘‘the judiciary as a bastion of rights and justice’’. An independent judiciary lanced with the power of judicial review was the constitutional device chosen to achieve the required objective. This jurisdiction to enforce the Fundamental Rights was conferred upon both the Supreme Court and the High Courts, hence them being the courts that have entertained all the Public Interest Litigation cases.
Impetus for PIL
A number of factors contributed to the robust development of PIL in India. The first factor has already been noted above, that is, the constitutional framework relating to FRs and DPs. It is clear that because of FRs and DPs, the Indian judiciary would have enjoyed a comparative advantage in anchoring PIL vis-`a-vis courts of those jurisdictions (such as the United Kingdom and Australia) where there was no Bill of Rights. Secondly, several constitutional provisions concerning the powers of the Supreme Court helped the Court in coming up with innovative and unconventional remedies, which in turn raised social expectations. For instance, a provision

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