1) There is no doubt that President of India is The Supreme Authority in India.
2) But Constitution of India has provided for "Checks and Balances" to ensure that even if President of India takes a wrong decision, it can be set aside by Courts.
3) These powers of Courts are called "Powers of Judicial Review". No Authority or person in India is above these powers.
Even decisions of Chief Justice of India can be challenged in Courts under these powers of "Judicial Review".
4) The powers are however very narrow and limited. Under these powers Courts are mainly allowed to see only two things :
A. Whether relevant material or information was placed before President when he was making the decision.
B. The decision itself does not appear to be based on some mala fide reasons.
These are the main narrow grounds on which Supreme Court can Judicially Review decisions of President of India.
The Court cannot substitute its own view in place of decision of President. It can only review or examine "Decision Taking Process".
Haresh Raichura
20/04/2016
