Public Conversation on ‘Judicial Pressures and Constitutional Courage’

Context

We are at a point of time in India’s history when public faith in institutions of democracy appears to be diminishing again. The long-cherished belief in the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, as the protector of the common person’s rights has come under the scanner. It is an important moment to start a conversation on how judiciary is and can continue to be a foundational building block of our democracy – both in an attempt to understand the present state of affairs and to offer solutions.

The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy is organising a series of public conversations titled ‘Conscience Keeper: Judiciary as the Constitutional Guardian’. It is a series of four conversations spread over our Constitutional Law Month. These conversations will address some of the most pressing concerns of our time, including judiciary and constitutional courage, unlawful restriction of free speech, and the nature of federalism in India today, among others. The series is being organised in affiliation with the Kautilya Society at the National Law University, Odisha, one of Vidhi’s several student societies. We hope to take this conversation forward with you for the larger public good.

The first conversation on November 18 was on ‘Federalism in India – Cooperative, Competitive or Adversarial?’ with Dr P Thiaga Rajan, MLA, Tamil Nadu Assembly, Dr M Govinda Rao, Member, Fourteenth Finance Commission and former Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), and Alok Prasanna, Co-Founder and Lead, Vidhi Karnataka. Details of the second conversation are below.