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Political Science I · Unit 3

Organisation of Government — Separation of Powers, the Judiciary and Parliamentary Sovereignty

Unit 3 of Political Science – I (syllabus: Module III — Montesquieu’s theory and his four cases of fusion; the liberal interpretation as mutual restraint; the doctrine applied in the USA under checks and balances, its absence in England, and its functional form in India from Art. 50 through Ram Jawaya to Kesavananda; the judiciary as an organ — its five functions and the constitutional devices securing its independence; Dicey’s three limbs of the rule of law and their Indian equivalents; judicial review from Marbury to Art. 13, with severability; the Art. 368 cases — Shankari Prasad, Sajjan Singh, Golaknath, the 24th Amendment, Kesavananda Bharati and Minerva Mills; and parliamentary sovereignty with the five limitations on the Indian Parliament). Below: what the unit covers, the provisions it turns on, and the cases an examiner expects you to name.

What this unit covers

  • What is the theory of separation of powers, and how does Montesquieu argue for it?
  • How far is separation of powers applied in the United States and in England?
  • How far does the Indian Constitution follow separation of powers?
  • What does the judiciary do as an organ of government, and how is its independence secured?
  • What are the three limbs of Dicey's rule of law, and how does India answer them?
  • What is judicial review, where does it come from, and on what does it rest in India?
  • How did the amendment cases produce the basic structure doctrine?
  • Is the Indian Parliament sovereign, and how does it differ from the British Parliament?

Treat that list as a self-test: recite each topic's rule from memory before you open its cases.

Provisions

Leading cases

  • Springier v. Philippine Island
  • Ram Jawaya v. State of Punjab and Kesavananda Bharati
  • Marbury v. Madison
  • Kesavananda Bharati

Exam questions on this unit

In this paper