Ramachandra Guha: Supreme Court must reflect on its calling as defined by the Constitution - and the direction it is taking

By Dilip -
NB: Thanks are due to Professor Ramachandra Guha for giving voice to the misgivings of many Indian citizens. I can only hope they listen, rather than charge him wih contempt. DS

Honourable Judges, This letter is written with respect as well as in anguish. I write as a historian and as a citizen, concerned in both capacities with the growing lack of faith among many Indians in the functioning of the Supreme Court (SC). Let me say straight away that this is part of a wider degradation of Indian democracy, in which the Court is by no means the central actor. 

Other (and possibly more serious) manifestations of this degradation are the politicisation of the civil service and the police; the creation of a cult of personality; the intimidation of the media; the use of tax and investigative agencies to harass and intimidate independent voices; the refusal to do away with repressive colonial-era laws and instead the desire to strengthen them; and not, least, the undermining of Indian federalism by the steady whittling down of the powers of the states by the Centre.

I should also make it clear that this ongoing degradation of Indian democracy is not the fault of one party or one leader alone. Rather, these perversions of the democratic process were set in motion by the Congress Party when it was in power at the Centre; and they have been further deepened under the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party since May 2014....
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/supreme-court-democracy-politicisation-judiciary-kashmir-covid-6552287/

 see also
Colin Gonsalves: Refusal of bail to Sudha Bharadwaj is based on inadmissible evidence
Coomi Kapoor: Everyone who succumbs to authority is no less guilty
First Among Equals? // Laws, legal system totally geared in favour of rich and powerful: Justice Deepak Gupta
Mukul Kesavan: Against forgetting
VAKASHA SACHDEV: In Reply to Contempt Case, Bhushan Offers Detailed Critique of SC
Suhas Palshikar: Bhoomi pujan of the new republic // Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Political colonisation of Hinduism
Press Statement on the interrogation of Professor Apoorvanand by the Special Branch
Prashant Bhushan Says Sorry for Just One Remark; 'Why No Helmet by CJI?'
Pratap Bhanu Mehta: The loneliness of Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde, Sudha Bharadwaj tells a disquieting tale
Nikhila Henry - Ex CJI Gogoi's RS Nomination Calls All His Judgments Into Question, Says Legal Expert
Sabotage of Indian criminal justice continues unchecked: Aseemanand’s ‘disclosure’ missing from court
Apoorva Mandhani: Judge Loya's Confidants Died Mysterious Deaths
Death of Judge Loya: Government documents placed before Supreme Court raise more questions, deepen the mystery. By ATUL DEV

Confrontation in Supreme Court Of India bodes ill // Prashant Bhushan on the CJI’s ‘Extraordinary Interest’ in a Matter Directly Concerning Himself

Do our leaders want to certify political assassination?
Decline, Debasement and Devastation in the All India Services. By P. S. Appu (IAS, Retd)
The Broken Middle - on the 30th anniversary of 1984
Sulphur in the air: 1984 is not forgotten

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