Court on Trial- A Data-Driven Account of the Supreme Court of India is a book co-authored by Aparna Chandra, Sital Kalantry and William H. J. Hubbard. It examines the functioning and impact of the apex court of India, also touted as the most powerful court in the world, through a data-driven analysis across six issues: the accessibility and capacity of the court, the time the court takes to adjudicate cases, the influence of senior advocates on the outcome of cases, the impact of ‘master of roster’ principle on bench compositions, gender diversity (or lack thereof) on the Bench and the collegium system of appointment of judges. While the issues delved upon in the book have been a part of mainstream discussions in various shapes and forms, it is the data-sets that the authors have pieced together that add considerable richness to the discussions and to a large extent also provide finality to some of the debates.

The Vidhi Book Adda with Aparna Chandra will focus on unpacking these data-sets that the book relies upon, and will aim to bring to fore the challenges as well as the clarity that comes with analysing 18 years’ worth of case-data. Equally, the endeavor of the Adda would be to understand the author’s perspectives on the data potential that remains to be tapped with the Supreme Court making it easier to file RTIs and putting up its case data on NJDG.

About the Author

Aparna Chandra is an Associate Professor of law at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, where she teaches and researches on constitutional law, comparative law, gender and the law, and the judicial process reform. She has previously worked at the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, and the NLU- Delhi, where she founded the Centre for Constitutional Law, Policy and Governance.

About the Moderator

Deepika Kinhal is a Senior Resident Fellow and Team Lead for the JALDI (Justice, Access and Lowering Delays in India) initiative at VidhiCentre for Legal Policy. She has authored multiple data-driven reports aimed at understanding systemic issues ailing India’s justice delivery systems and is currently working on interdisciplinary projects to solve those issues. She has been engaged by multiple High Courts to work on their case and court management systems, and has been a part of expert committees constituted to enable judicial reforms, especially through technology.