• The Supreme Court invoked its plenary power under Article 142 of the Constitution and nullified the outcome of the January 30 Chandigarh mayoral polls.

• The BJP had won the Chandigarh mayoral polls defeating the AAP-Congress alliance candidate after the returning officer declared as invalid eight votes of the coalition partners, drawing accusations of tampering with ballots.

• The Supreme Court overturned the initial result of the BJP candidate’s victory and instead declared the AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar the mayor of Chandigarh.

• A bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said in such a case, the top court was duty bound, particularly in the context of its jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution, to ensure that the process of electoral democracy is not allowed to be thwarted by subterfuge.

• The SC ordered prosecution of returning officer Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for serious misdemeanour for making an allegedly false statement before the court that he had invalidated eight ballots because they had been defaced.

• The bench said Masih had evidently put his own mark on these eight ballot papers for the purpose of creating a ground for treating them as invalidly cast.

What is Article 142?

• Article 142 is about the enforcement of decrees and orders of the Supreme Court.

• It deals with the Supreme Court’s power to exercise its jurisdiction and pass order for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it.

• It states that, “The Supreme Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it, and any decree so passed or orders so made shall be enforceable throughout the territory of India in such manner as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament and, until provision in that behalf is so made, in such manner as the President may by order prescribe.”

• Section 2 states that “Subject to the provisions of any law made in this behalf by Parliament, the Supreme Court shall, as respects the whole of the territory of India, have all and every power to make any order for the purpose of securing the attendance of any person, the discovery or production of any documents, or the investigation or punishment of any contempt of itself.”

Recent cases invoking Article 142

• In May 2022, the Supreme Court ordered the release of A.G. Perarivalan, who served over 30 years in jail in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

• On November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court in the judgment on the Ayodhya title dispute used special powers granted in the Article 142 of the Constitution. Though the disputed 2.77 acres of land was awarded for a temple, based on the evidence, the apex court invoked the powers of Article 142 to grant five acres for a mosque in Ayodhya.

• The SC bench also invoked this Article to grant relief to Nirmohi Akhara and sought its inclusion on the trust formed by the Centre under Section 6 of the Ayodhya Act to construct temple.

• In October 2019, the Supreme Court exercised its inherent powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to annul a marriage of an estranged couple, residing separately for over two decades, saying it was a case of irretrievable breakdown of wedlock.

• In December 2015, the Supreme Court appointed a former High Court judge Justice Virendra Singh as Uttar Pradeshs Lokayukta after the state government failed to comply with its directives. The UP government failed to meet the Supreme Court deadline to appoint Lokayukta even after two rounds of marathon talks, which failed to come up with a consensus name.

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