Sovereignty - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition sovereignty

Definition :

Sovereignty, means 'supremacy in respect of power, dominion or rank; supreme dominion authority or rule. Sovereignty is the right to govern. The term sovereignty as applied to states implies 'Supreme, absolute, uncontrollable power by which any state is governed, and which resides within itself, whether residing in a single individual or a number of individuals, or in the whole body of the people. Sovereignty according to its normal legal connotation is the supreme power which govern the body politic, or society which constitutes the state and the power is independent of the particular form of government whether monarchial, autocratic or democratic, Govindrao v. State of Madhya Pradesh, AIR 1982 SC 1201.

Means the Supreme, absolute and uncontrollable power by which any independent state is governed; supreme political authority paramount control of the constitution and frame of government and its administration; the self-sufficient source of political power from which all specific political powers are derived; the inter-national independence of a State combined with the right and power of regulating its internal affairs without foreign dictation; also a political society or State which is sovereign and independent, Black's Law Dictionary, 5th Edn., p. 1252.

The term 'sovereignty' is difficult to define. It is the exercise of sovereign power which gives the States sufficient authority to enact any law subject to limitations of the Constitution to discharge its functions. The Indian State, between the Centre and the States, has sovereign power. The sovereign power is plenary and inherent in every sovereign State to do all things which promote the health, peace, morals, education and good order of the people. Sovereignty is difficult to define. This power of sovereignty is, however, subject to constitutional limitations, Synthetics and Chemicals Ltd. v. State of U.P., AIR 1990 SC 1927: (1990) 1 SCC 109: (1989) Supp 1 SCR 623. (Constitution of India, Preamble)

(ii) 'Sovereignty' means 'supremacy in respect of power, dominion or rank; supreme dominion authority or rule'. 'Sovereignty' is the right to govern. The term 'sovereignty' as applied to States implies 'supreme, absolute, uncontrollable power by which any State is governed, and which resides within itself, whether residing in a single individual or a number of individuals, or in the whole body of the people'. Thus, sovereignty, according to its normal legal connotation, is the supreme power which governs the body politic, or society which constitutes the State, and this power is independent of the particular form of Government, whether monarchilal, autocratic or democratic. According to Laski in A Grammar of Politics, 1957 Reprint, Chap. II, p. 50: The legal aspect of sovereignty is best examined by a statement of the form given to it by John Austin. In every legal analysis of the State, he argued, it is first of all necessary to discover in the given society that definite superior to which habitual obedience is rendered by the mass of men. That superior must not itself obey any higher authority. When we discover the authority which gives commands habitually obeyed, itself not receiving them, we have the sovereign power in the State. In an independent political community that sovereign is determinate and absolute. Its will is illimitable because, if it could not be constrained to act, it would cease to be supreme, since it would then be subject to the constraining power. Its will is indivisible because, if power over certain functions or persons is absolutely and irrevocably entrusted to a given body, the sovereign then ceases to enjoy universal supremacy and therefore ceases by definition to be sovereign. Sardar Govindrao v. State of Madhya Pradesh, AIR 1982 SC 1201 (1204): (1982) 2 SCC 414: (1982) 3 SCR 729. [C.P. & Berar Revocation of Land Revenue Exemption Act, 37 of (1948), s. 5(3)(ii)]

Sovereignty has been defined as 'the supreme authority' in an independent political society. It is, essential, indivisible and illimitable. However, it is now considered and accepted as both divisible and limitable, and we must recognise that it should be so. Sovereignty is limited externally by the possibility of a general resistance. Internal sovereignty is paramount power over all action within, and is limited by the nature of the power itself, Union of India v. Sukumar Sengupta, AIR 1990 SC 1692 (1701): 1990 Supp SCC 545.

1. Supreme dominion authority or rule 2. Supreme political authority of an independent state 3. State itself, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1402.

Sovereignty, within the American regime the ultimate power and authority to alter or abolish the constitutions of Government of State and Union resides only and inalienably with the people. If it be necessary or useful to use the term 'sovereignty' in the sense of ultimate political power, then there is no sovereign in America but the people, (Encyclopaedia of the American Constitution by Dennis J. Mahoney), See also Agricultural Produce Market Committee v. Ashok Harikuni, (2000) 8 SCC 61.