Democratic Institutions
In an unprecedented show of solidarity with Justice B. Sudershan Reddy, the Opposition’s candidate for Vice President, 18 former judges of the Supreme Court and various high courts have issued a statement criticising Union home minister Amit Shah’s recent attack on him and the Supreme Court for the 2011 Salwa Judum judgment outlawing Chhattisgarh’s use of armed vigilantes against the Naxalite insurgency.
The 2011 judgment was delivered by Justice Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar, who has since died. The judgment itself came as part of a gradual build-up of judicial orders by different benches of the Supreme Court which heard a PIL filed by Nandini Sundar and others in 2007 seeking justice for the adivasi victims of human rights violations being committed by the vigilante Salwa Judum squads.
25/08/2025
Rahul Gandhi सच्चे देशभक्त हैं या नहीं ये कौन तय करेगा ?' कानून के जानकारों से समझिए https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Nau68I8zw
Kapil Sibal , Justice Madan Lokur, and Salman Khurshid, Who decides who is a true patriot? The conversation spans recent judicial remarks, political controversies, the limits of free speech, and the responsibility of leaders to ask tough questions. Through real-life anecdotes, legal insights, and thought-provoking reflections, the episode challenges viewers to rethink the meaning of nationalism, democracy, and dissent in today’s India.
The independence of the judiciary and the profession of lawyers is being slowly but surely compromised.
From Bench to Bar, the Executive Tightens Its Grip on Justice - The Wire
The political executive has been stalling the appointment of judges by disregarding the recommendations made by the collegium of judges of the Supreme Court (no less). There are well-known, documented cases of the political executive taking no action on recommendations made by the collegium of judges, rendering the agreed Memorandum of Procedure nothing but a scrap of paper. Where appointments are made, they are delayed, thereby adversely impacting the seniority of some judges while favouring others. For the present purposes, it is not necessary to revisit these lanes and bye-lanes.
Dominance of the judiciary by the political executive has delayed justice delivery with the result that violent crimes appear to have increased. These are reported daily in newspapers, and TV channels hype up these cases and convict the suspects even before the police complete their investigation. So much for speedy justice.
05/07/2025
The Bench’s observations have come at a time when Bar Associations across the country have been condemning the action of the Directorate of Enforcement (‘ED’) summoning two senior advocates of the Supreme Court although the summons were later withdrawn by the agency after uproar.
The Bench noted that these issues require to be addressed because what is at stake is the efficacy of the administration of justice and the capacity of the lawyers to conscientiously and fearlessly discharge their professional duties.
25/06/2025
Last month, The Print reported that 1 in every 3 of India’s 687 sitting permanent high court judges is either related to a sitting or former judge, or comes from a family of lawyers. https://theprint.in/judiciary/in-a-first-sc-releases-list-disclosing-proposed-hc-judges-ties-to-sitting-former-judges/2616685/
The Supreme Court has now released a list of 221 candidates approved by the Supreme Court collegium for appointments as high court judges between 9 November 2022 to 5 May 2025.
Of these, 14 candidates are related to sitting or former judges of the Supreme Court or the high courts. It clarifies that a candidate is treated to be related to a former or sitting judge is or was their father, mother, father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister, brother, sister-in-law, or brother-in-law.
The list also provides a breakdown of candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), or Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories. Of the 221 candidates, 8 belong to the SC category, 7 to ST category, 32 to OBC category, 7 to most backward classes/backward classes category, and 31 to minorities.
- Supreme Court Publishes Asset Declarations of Judges, Detailed Info About Judicial Appointments
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- SC Judges Caste - North -South differences
- SC must consider the economic impact of its rulings. A good law may have a bad effect
- Allahabad High Court Bar Association Up in Arms Against "God Syndrome" of Judges
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Fourth Estate
For Free speech and Media Rights see Fundamental Rights under Civil Liberties