Courts are final arbitrator & defender of 'living document' Constitution: SC

The courts have a role in ensuring federal balance as the final arbiter and defender of the Constitution, the Supreme Court said today.

In its landmark verdict on the power tussle between the Delhi government and the Centre, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said it was imperative that judges remain alive to the idea that the Constitution was never intended to be a "rigid and inflexible document".

It said that constitutional courts were entrusted with the critical task of expounding the provisions of Constitution and were duty-bound to ensure and preserve the rights and liberties of the citizens without disturbing the very fundamental principles.

"Thus, the role of the court in ensuring the federal balance, as mandated by the Constitution, assumes great importance. It is so as the court is the final arbiter and defender of the Constitution," CJI Misra, who wrote the judgement for himself and on behalf of Justices A K Sikri and A M Khanwilkar, said.

It also said that constitutional courts should not, for the sake of strict compliance to these principles, forget that when controversy arises out of a constitutional provision, their primary responsibility is to work out a solution.

"Our Constitution, to repeat at the cost of repetition, is an organic and living document. It contains words that potentially do have many a concept," the bench said.

It further said that the task of "interpreting an instrument as dynamic as the Constitution assumes great import in a democracy."