Article 32

In one line

A guaranteed right to go to the Supreme Court itself, for fundamental rights and nothing else, which cannot be suspended except as the Constitution provides.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: article 32(1) guarantees the right to move the Supreme Court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of the rights conferred by Part III. Clause (2) empowers the Supreme Court to issue directions or orders or writs, including writs in the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari, whichever may be appropriate, for the enforcement of any of those rights. Clause (3) permits Parliament by law to empower any other court to exercise, within the local limits of its jurisdiction, all or any of the powers exercisable by the Supreme Court under clause (2). Clause (4) provides that the right guaranteed by the article shall not be suspended except as otherwise provided for by the Constitution.

The four clauses

Clause (1): the guarantee. The right to move the Supreme Court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of the rights conferred by Part III is guaranteed.

Three words carry weight. Guaranteed makes it a right and not a discretion, so that the Court cannot decline a petition on the ground that another remedy exists, though it frequently asks the petitioner to go to the High Court first. Appropriate proceedings has been read liberally, and is the textual room in which public interest litigation grew. And for the enforcement of the rights conferred by this Part is the limit: no fundamental right, no article 32.

Clause (2): the writs. The Court has power to issue directions or orders or writs, including writs in the nature of the five named writs, whichever may be appropriate.

The word including matters. The Court's power is not confined to the five writs and their English technicalities; it may issue any direction or order appropriate to enforce the right. That is why compensation, guidelines and continuing mandamus have all been issued under article 32.

Clause (3): the delegation. Parliament may by law empower any other court to exercise, within the local limits of its jurisdiction, all or any of the powers exercisable by the Supreme Court under clause (2). The power has not been used in any substantial way, because article 226 already gives the High Courts a wider jurisdiction.

Clause (4): the exception. The right shall not be suspended except as otherwise provided for by this Constitution, which is the reference forward to article 359.

The five writs, in one paragraph each

Habeas corpus, have the body. Issued to a person detaining another, requiring him to produce the person and justify the detention. It is the writ this book is about, and it is worked in [Habeas Corpus in India].