Sovereignty of Parliament

The doctrine of ‘sovereignty of Parliament’ is associated with the British Parliament. Sovereignty means the supreme power within the State. That supreme power in Great Britain lies with the Parliament. There are no ‘legal’ restrictions on its authority and jurisdiction.
   Therefore, the sovereignty of Parliament (parliamentary supremacy) is a cardinal feature of the British constitutional system. According to AV Dicey, the British jurist, this principle has three implications:

1. The Parliament can make, amend, substitute or repeal any law. De Lolme, a British political analyst, said, ‘The British Parliament can do every thing except make a woman a man and a man a woman’.
2. The Parliament can make constitutional laws by the same procedure as ordinary laws. In other words, there is no legal distinction between the constituent authority and the legislative authority of the British Parliament.
3. The Parliamentary laws cannot be declared invalid by the Judiciary as being unconstitutional. In other words, there is no system of judicial review in Britain.

     The Indian Parliament, on the other hand, cannot be regarded as a sovereign body in the similar sense as there are ‘legal’ restrictions on its authority and jurisdiction. The factors that limit the sovereignty of Indian Parliament are:

1. Written Nature of the Constitution

The Constitution is the fundamental law of the land in our country. It has defined the authority and jurisdiction of all the three organs of the Union government and the nature of interrelationship between them. Hence, the Parliament has to operate within the limits prescribed by the Constitution. There is also a legal distinction between the legislative authority and the constituent authority of the Parliament. Moreover, to effect certain amendments to the Constitution, the ratification of half of the states is also required. In Britain, on the other hand, the Constitution is neither written nor there is anything like a fundamental law of the land.