By- Dr. Sandhya Kumari & Rudrabhishek Chauhan

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The society is ever-evolving and we are way behind in accommodating the socio-cultural ethos, sustainable development, digital advances, anti-competition measures and related governance challenges. This requires transformative constitutionalism being imbibed in daily judicial business, imposing a responsibility on the judiciary to ensure consistent transformation in the society through interpretation of constitution and other legal provisions, while keeping the intentions of the Constituent Assembly and morality intact. The question, herein, arises whose morality; people’s or constitution’s? Or, rather, can there be a balance between the two? Notably, the relationship between constitutional morality and public morality is not simply opting for one or the other; rather, it is intricate. For example, while constitutional morality seeks to ensure the democratic ethos and to protect the rights of the people; public morality imposes restrictions based on societal beliefs. The dilemma requires an inquiry as to the extent to which public morality may play a role in protecting fundamental rights and interpreting the Constitution. Against this backdrop, the authors have taken up to deepen their understanding of these two legal constructs and identify the possibilities for balance of these types of morality within the Indian legal system. In this regard, this paper also observes how these ideas interact with each other and affect judicial rulings, through the examples of significant cases. Further, the authors have aimed to identify the ways for reconciliation between the constitutional and public morality through judicial interpretation of the Constitution. Further, they also seek insight regarding how the judiciary has managed to deal with these concerns. In this backdrop, the paper is divided in seven parts. The first being the introduction, the second part deals with the theoretical framework of these two concepts of constitutional and public morality, third part elaborates upon constitutional morality in India, wherein fourth part engages with public morality in India, fifth part highlights the conflict between constitutional morality and public morality. Further the sixth part focuses on the role of the Indian judiciary in upholding constitutional morality and public morality. Finally, the last part deals with conclusion suggesting that when the organs of legislature and the judiciary along with civil society as third party put in efforts, the balancing of public and constitutional morality maybe a possibility.

Keywords: Constitutional values, Constitutional morality, public morality, Judicial Overreach