A.P. Shah: The Only Institution Capable of Stopping the Death of Democracy Is Aiding it
NB: As our democratic institutions are demolished in broad daylight and an ideological tyranny established under our noses, we can thank this retired Judge for speaking up. As for those who prefer to collaborate in this nefarious project; or to watch silently, I remind them of the fate of dictators like Mussolini and Hitler. Your names will stink for a thousand years..DS
Even if parliament has been debilitated, other entities should have stepped up to the plate and kept the executive in check. We have heard nothing of the Lokpal since forever. The National Human Rights Commission is dormant. Investigation agencies are misused at the slightest opportunity. The Election Commission appears to have been compromised. The Information Commission is almost non-functional. The list is long and troubling. Even academia, the press, and civil society have been systematically destroyed or silenced. Universities are under attack daily, whether it is students being accused of rioting, or teachers being accused of criminal conspiracy. The idea of an unbiased mainstream fourth estate in India died its death a long time ago. And civil society is being slowly but surely strangled, through various ways. But the most worrying of all is the state of the judiciary. ..
Justice A.P. Shah is a former chief justice of the Delhi high court. This text is adapted from his speech, Supreme Court in Decline: Forgotten Freedoms and Eroded Rights, at the Justice Suresh Memorial Lecture, on September 18, 2020.
The Only Institution Capable of Stopping the Death of Democracy Is Aiding it
I speak here today of what I believe is one of the most troubling developments of our time: the decline of the Indian Supreme Court. As a former judge, at the very least I believe it is my duty to ring some warning bells. The political thinker, Edmund Burke, said that judges are trained so that they can detect misgovernment, and especially, “sniff the approach of tyranny in every political breeze”. This is the kind of court we need, but unfortunately this is not the court we have right now. The Supreme Court has had a glorious past that it should be proud of.
The statesmanship that the 13-judge constitutional bench exhibited in the decision in Kesavananda Bharati, where the basic structure doctrine was laid down, and judicial custody of the constitution reclaimed, is but one shining example of what the court is capable of. Indeed, Granville Austin said that the court had established itself as “the logical, primary custodian” of the Constitution, and “its interpreter and guardian.” The Supreme Court started out as a passive court. Slowly but surely, as the institution understood its role in the governance of the nation, it expanded its authority, thus laying the foundation for an activist role in future…
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