Article 142 is a constitutional provision that grants the Supreme Court of India extraordinary, plenary power to ensure justice is fully delivered in any matter before it. It was originally drafted as Article 118 and was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on May 27, 1949, without debate, to give the nation's highest court an unprecedented tool to address situations where existing statutory law or procedure might not yield a just outcome. The problem it solved was the potential for procedural gaps or technicalities to obstruct the ultimate goal of justice.
The core mechanism is laid out in Article 142(1), which states that the Supreme Court "may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it". This power is not bound by the limitations of statutory law or procedural rules, allowing the Court to "iron out the creases" and shape relief between the parties. For example, the Court has used this power to grant divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage, even though it was not a statutory ground under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and to waive the six-month waiting period for mutual consent divorce. In Shilpa Sailesh v. Varun Sreenivasan (2023), a Constitution Bench affirmed that the Supreme Court can directly grant divorce under Article 142 on this ground.
Article 142 connects closely to Article 141, which makes the Supreme Court's declarations of law binding on all courts, but unlike Article 141, orders under Article 142 are generally inter partes (binding only on the parties in the case) and do not necessarily set a binding precedent. It also complements Article 32 (Right to constitutional remedies) and Article 136 (Special Leave Petition).
The provision itself has not been recently replaced or amended, but its interpretation and application have been refined. The Court has cautioned that the power cannot be used to ignore substantive rights of litigants who are not parties to the case or to override clear statutory provisions. However, its use has increased, notably in cases like the Ram Janam Bhumi Case, where the Court allowed the construction of a temple and simultaneously provided a 5-acre land for a Mosque to the U.P. Central Sunni Wakf Board to achieve complete justice. Article 142(2) further grants the Court powers for securing attendance of persons, discovery of documents, and punishment for contempt of itself.