Editor’s Note: Against the backdrop of the Prashant Bhushan contempt case, Talha Abdul Rahman* asserts that lawyers are ambassadors of rule of law and should courageously point out any wrongdoing or arbitrariness in the conduct of those in authority. A career in litigation is fraught with fresh challenges every day. Lawyers are humiliated by judges [...]
Editor’s Note: In this blog post, Sanchit Khandelwal highlights the nepotism and favouritism prevalent in appointment procedures of the judiciary, selection of senior counsels, and at the bar. Due to such nepotism and favouritism, young lawyers and subordinate judiciary judges from marginalised communities suffer unduly. This necessitates the need for reform. Introduction Recent findings and [...]
Editor's Note: In this essay, Shreenath A. Khemka* critically assesses the honorary title of ‘Justice’ used as a prefix by judges of various High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. He argues that the usage of the title ‘Justice’ is unsustainable under Article 18 (1) of the Constitution. When it comes to the practice [...]
Editor's note - In this piece Shreenath Khemka writes about the imminence of a fifth Judges' case. With the CJI recommending the initiation of removal proceedings against Justice S.N. Shukla, the Judiciary's control over its composition can be seen to be extending to the removal of its officers too. While the four Judges' case gave [...]
Editor's Note: In this post, Shreenath Khemka points out the shortcomings of the currently available disciplining mechanisms to regulate the judiciary. As proposals, he suggests using contempt proceedings, the use of the General Clauses Act for penalties and the writ of 'Scire Facias' instead of the arduous removal proceedings under 124(4) of the Constitution. The [...]
Editor’s Note: In this article, Namratha Murugeshan critically assesses the executive government’s power to appoint retired judges to tribunals and commissions (post-retirement appointments). She first underscores the impact that these post-retirement offers have on judicial independence and second, appraises the suitability of judges as members of tribunals. Recently Supreme Court Justice A.K. Sikri was caught [...]
This is the first part of Justice K. Kannan's three-part series 'Towards Truth as the Only Goal'. In a set of three articles, he shall analyse the function of the judicial process of arriving at the normative goal of truth. In this first article, he argues that while essentially all litigations are always exercises to [...]
In this interesting article, Justice Ruma Pal, a former judge of the Supreme Court of India, offers an insider's perspective on tricks of courtroom lawyering. She takes the readers through the necessary ingredients which make up a ‘legally successful lawyer’ as distinguishable from a ‘successful lawyer’. The didactic article is addressed to young lawyers in a [...]
Editor’s Note: In this article, the author critically reviews the lack of checks to prevent arbitrary exercise of CJI’s power to act as the master of the roster. He draws attention to the sui generis character of judicial administration, and why it is an important ingredient for independence of the judiciary from both external and [...]
Editor’s Note: The article comments on the press conference delivered by the four senior-most puisne judges of the Supreme Court of India on the 12th January, 2018. It focuses on two conventional practices ordinarily governing judicial administration. The first being that of judiciary refraining from making public engagement through the media and the press, while [...]
Editor's Note: The common thread in Justice Kannan’s lecture was that the Law and the Truth are perfectly compatible. Entry into litigation is a spiritual cause and for him spirituality, is being transparent, truthful and even-handed. He stressed that one must not romanticize the judiciary, as it would disturb this balance of authority and virtue [...]
