Why is independent judiciary essential for a democracy?

The principle of Democracy means that the people have the right to participate in the decision-making process of the country and our judicial system has assured us to protect our fundamental rights.

We often listen to the cases which involve powerful, rich people or politicians trying to influence the Judicial system so that the judge could take decisions in their favour. We know that they have the power to appoint or remove the judge from power. Thus, the decision taken by the judge at that point of time will be partial in nature. This makes the judge not able to take the independent decision and will take judgement in favour of the rich and powerful politician. It becomes the responsibility of the Indian constitution to protect us to avoid such a situation and to ensure the independence of the judiciary.

Independent judiciary is essential for democracy because -

• Indian constitution mentions one of the most important features that is ‘separation of powers’. It means that the judicial system of our country is independent of other branches like the legislature and the executive and they cannot interfere with its decisions.

• Also, the government cannot interfere in its decision-making process. With least interference by these branches of the government, they could appoint the judges in the High Court and the Supreme Court. It is difficult to remove the judge once he/she is appointed.

• Independent judiciary means courts to function independently without any misuse or dominance by the legislature and the executive over it.

• Fundamental Rights of citizens are also protected so that they can go to the court if they feel that their rights have been violated.