THE ADVISORY JURISDICTION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA: A STUDY

ABSTRACT The Supreme Court of India is the highest court established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Indian Constitution. It was established to replace the Federal Court of India and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Its jurisdiction is laid down under the Articles 124 to 147 of the Constitution, which can be classified as under: -  Original Jurisdiction  Appellate Jurisdiction  Advisory Jurisdiction. The problem dealt with in this paper revolves around the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, given under Article 143 of the Constitution. The first reference under Article 143 was made in the Delhi Laws case1 . There have been only 12 references under Article 143 made by the President since independence. This paper would discuss about the reason for existence of advisory jurisdiction in India. It would then go on to analyze the text of the article 143 thoroughly to answer the research questions mentioned herein under. This would be substantiated with relevant case laws. The authors would finally assess the system of advisory jurisdiction.