On this page, you will find NCERT Class 8 Civics Chapter 5 Notes Pdf free download. CBSE Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 5 SST Judiciary will seemingly, help them to revise the important concepts in less time.
Judiciary Class 8 Notes Social Science Civics Chapter 5
CBSE Class 8 Civics Chapter 5 Notes Understanding the Lesson
1. To enforce a rule of law India has a judicial system that consists of mechanism of courts that a citizens can approach when a law is violated.
2. As an organ of the State, the judiciary plays an important and crucial role in the functioning of India’s democracy.
3. Indian judiciary is independent.
4. Courts take decisions on a very large number of issues.
5. The work of judiciary is divided into the following:
6. Dispute Resolution: The judicial system provides a mechanism for resolving disputes between citizens, between citizens and government, between two state governments and between the centre and state governments.
7. Judicial Review: As the final interpreter of the Constitution, the judiciary also has the power to strike down particular laws passed by the Parliament if it believes that there are a violation of the basic structure of the Constitution. This is called Judicial Review.
8. Upholding the law and Enforcing the Fundamental Rights: Every citizen of India can approach the Supreme court or the High Court if they believe that their Fundamental Rights have been violated.
9. The Indian Constitution protects against influencing of the judicial process by politicians or rich people by providing the independence of the judiciary.
10. One of the aspects of the independent judiciary is the separation of power.
11. The courts are not under the government and do not act on their behalf.
12. Appointment of judges has very little interference from the legislature and executive branches of the government. Once appointed to this office, it very difficult to remove a judge.
13. Independent judiciary allows the courts to play a central role in ensuring that there is no misuse of power by the legislature and the executive.
14. Structure of the courts in India:
- There are 3 different levels of courts in our country.
- Several courts are at the lower level and only one at the apex level.
- The courts that most people interact with are what are called subordinate or district courts.
- Each state is divided into districts that are presided over by a District Judge.
- Each state has a High Court which is the highest court of that state.
- The decisions made by the Supreme Court are binding on all other courts in India.
- In India, there is an integrated judicial system meaning that the decisions made by higher courts are binding on the lower courts.
- A person can appeal to a higher court if they believe that the judgment passed by the lower court is not just.
15. There are 2 types of laws that are civil law and criminal law:
- Criminal Law: It deals with conduct or acts that the law defines as offences. For eg, theft, harassing a woman to bring more dowry, murder.
- Civil Law: Deals with any harm or injury to rights of individuals. For eg. disputes relating to sale of land, purchase of goods, rent matters, divorce cases.
16. In principle, all citizens of India can access the courts in the country implying that every citizen has a right to justice through the courts.
- While the courts are available for all, in reality access to the courts has always been difficult for a vast majority of the poor in India.
17. Supreme court in the early 1980’s devised a mechanism of Public Interest Litigation or PIL to increase access to justice allowing any individual or organisation to file PIL in the High Court or the Supreme Court on behalf of those whose right have been violated.
18. The legal process have been simplified and even a letter or telegram addressed to the Supreme Court or the High Court could be treated as PIL.
19. For the common person, access to courts is access to justice.
20. There are also court judgments that people believe work against the best interests of common person.
21. Another issue that effects the common person’s access to justice is the inordinately long number of years that courts takes to hear a case.
22. The phrase’ justice delayed is justice denied’ is often used to characterise this extended time period that courts take.
23. Judiciary had played a crucial role in democratic India, serving as a check on the powers of the executive and the legislature as well as in protecting the Fundamental Rights of citizens.
24. The members of the Constituent Assembly had quite correctly envisioned a system of courts with an independent judiciary as a key feature our democracy.
Judiciary Class 8 CBSE Notes Important Terms
Acquit: This refers to the court declaring that a person is not guilty of the crime which he/she was tried for by the court.
Compensation: This refers to the money given to make amends for an injury or a loss.
Eviction: This refers both to the removal of persons from land/homes that they are currently living in.
Violation: It refers both to the act of breaking a law as well as to the branch of infringement of Fundamental Rights.