Judicial Ethics

Ethics in the Profession: The Spine of a Litigator

By |2020-08-24T11:51:02+05:30August 24th, 2020|Access to Justice, Judicial Ethics, NALSAR Alumni, Professional Ethics, Young Lawyers|

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 [...]

The Indian Legal Fraternity is Failing at the Premise of its Own Existence

By |2020-07-12T12:11:25+05:30July 12th, 2020|Access to Justice, Adjudication and Judicial Process, Bar Associations, Constitution of India, Diversity, Judicial Administration, Judicial Ethics, Litigation Practice, Senior Designation, Young Lawyers|

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 [...]

Call me by my name: Lords & Justices

By |2020-05-06T21:54:15+05:30May 6th, 2020|Constitution of India, Judicial Administration, Judicial Ethics, Professional Ethics|

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 [...]

Fifth Judges’ Case: Parliamentary Prerogative Over Removal Proceedings

By |2019-08-17T22:14:02+05:30August 17th, 2019|Constitution of India, Judicial Administration, Judicial Ethics, NALSAR Alumni, Professional Ethics, Supreme Court of India|

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 [...]

Black Swans Galore: Disciplining Mechanisms in the Judiciary

By |2019-08-09T20:54:37+05:30August 9th, 2019|Constitution of India, Judicial Administration, Judicial Ethics, Professional Ethics, Supreme Court of India|

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 [...]

Post-Retirement Appointment of Judges in India

By |2019-05-06T11:58:41+05:30May 5th, 2019|Adjudication and Judicial Process, Judicial Administration, Judicial Ethics, Supreme Court of India|

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 [...]

Towards Truth as the Only Goal (I of III)

By |2018-09-26T01:14:02+05:30September 26th, 2018|Adjudication and Judicial Process, Criminal Law, Evidence Law, Judicial Ethics, Philosophising Litigation, Professional Ethics, Proving Cases, Tricks of the Trade|

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 [...]

Expectations of the Bench from Young Advocates

By |2018-09-21T22:34:35+05:30September 18th, 2018|Judicial Ethics, Professional Ethics, Success in Litigation, Supreme Court of India, Tricks of the Trade, Young Lawyers|

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 [...]

First among ‘Un’equals?

By |2018-01-20T02:53:23+05:30January 20th, 2018|Judicial Administration, Judicial Ethics, Supreme Court of India|

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 [...]

Two Conventions and the Indian Supreme Court

By |2018-01-20T02:17:33+05:30January 15th, 2018|Judicial Ethics, Supreme Court of India|

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 [...]

Judging as a Spiritual Journey | Justice Kannan

By |2017-09-22T19:00:12+05:30March 13th, 2017|Guest Speaker Series, High Court of Madras, High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Judicial Ethics|

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 [...]