The Citizen And Judicial Reforms Under Indian Polity

Contributed papers presented at a conference organized by the centre during April 13-14, 2002.

Contains 25 Papers And Two Documents Which Book At Various Aspects Of Indian Judicial System At All Levels-Judicial Activism-Appointment Of Judges-Independence Of Judiciary-Rule Of Law Etc.

A plan for wide-ranging judicial reform in India is articulated in these essays that call for better treatment of the poor, comprehensive rather than piecemeal planning, and a solution to the problem of delays and case backlogs. Topics include judicial governance, the law and economic growth, alternate dispute resolution, human resource development, the crucial role of IT, the future of legal education, and civil society initiatives for legal reform.

India is a wonder in the world for many Centuries. Attracted many countries to learn and enrich themselves. Britishers added three pillars of democracy and the English language. This book looks at the architectural foundation of India expressed in the Independence movement within the Governance of British India and the court system. The Village Republics in India blossomed into the Nation-State. Three pillars of the Constitution sustain organic growth in the Indian Democratic Republic, inspiring new democracies. British India royal charter established Supreme court for some years to regulate East India company and Colonial governance and then abolished. Constitution of India 1950 created the Supreme court as the apex court of the Nation. How it evolved as the People's Supreme Court by differing and accepting the constitutional means of amending the constitution and legislating powers of Parliament for meeting Judicial interpretations, social demand, globalised economy and administrative necessity to be modern forever.

This omnibus brings together two highly acclaimed volumes of essays written by India's leading constitutional expert and political commentator, A.G. Noorani. The volume also includes nine new essays that examine key issue areas that emerged in the debate on institutions and citizens' rights later. The essays explore the Indian Constitution and its basic structure, Parliament and the making of foreign policy, the issue of lobbying and the need for appropriate legislation, as also ethical codes for parliamentarians and ministers. Further, the omnibus includes a discussion of Courts and their powers of contempt, journalist's rights and freedom of information, in addition to an analysis of the choice of candidates by political parties. Written in the author's trademark lucid style, Constitutional Questions in India scrutinizes almost every constitutional problem that arose in the last two decades. The essays in this volume deal with issues concerning the President, Parliament, the states, the Judiciary, the Civil Services, the Election Commission, the armed forces and the process of accountability on which the constitutional machinery is based. Citizens' Rights, Judges and State Accountability follows the discussion of the executive and legislative branches with a discussion of India's institutions, the Judiciary, Civil Services and the elections, and various commissions of enquiry constituted by the government. It is supplemented with insights into the freedom of information and the citizen's rights to know, and specific articles on the Constitution, parliamentary resolutions, foreign policy, and the armed forces. While highlighting the process of accountability across these institutions, the volume demonstrates how citizens can assert their rights in the face of institutional disinterest and injustice.

Few will deny that the post-emergency higher judiciary in India has earned widespread public acclaim for its innovative and creative jurisprudence notwithstanding the argument advanced by some critics that it has exercised excessive jurisdiction, transgressing at times the executive and legislative domains, contrary to the original 'checks and balances' design of the Constitution. While the issue of judicial restraint in the context of constitutional separation of powers deserves serious attention, the fact of the matter is that juristocracy invariably triumphs when the elected representatives in a democracy cannot be trusted to provide good and lawful governance. From this perspective, the unprecedented judicialisation of politics and the growth of judicial activism in India seems to be an organic response to pressures within the political system itself. The contributors to the volume are well-known scholars, lawyers, and academics. They reflect on the itinerary of higher judiciary and its contributions to constitutional law and public good contextualised for the developmental path of the political system since the commencement of the Republic in 1950. The papers cover a variety of topics -- judicial activism, judiciary and ecology, secularism, parliamentary institutions, central executive, new economy, and judicial reforms -- that focus primarily, though not exclusively, on the ramifications of judicial activism for Indian politics.

"At the end of the 20th century, and at the dawn of the 21st, the United Nations was tasked with the administration of justice in territories placed under its executive authority, an undertaking for which there was no established precedent or doctrine. Examining the UN's legal and judicial reform efforts in Kosovo and East Timor, this volume argues that rather than helping to establish a sustainable legal system, the UN's approach detracted from it, as it confused ends with means."--Publisher's description.

It has long been contended that the Indian Constitution of 1950, a document in English created by elite consensus, has had little influence on India’s greater population. Drawing upon the previously unexplored records of the Supreme Court of India, A People’s Constitution upends this narrative and shows how the Constitution actually transformed the daily lives of citizens in profound and lasting ways. This remarkable legal process was led by individuals on the margins of society, and Rohit De looks at how drinkers, smugglers, petty vendors, butchers, and prostitutes—all despised minorities—shaped the constitutional culture. The Constitution came alive in the popular imagination so much that ordinary people attributed meaning to its existence, took recourse to it, and argued with it. Focusing on the use of constitutional remedies by citizens against new state regulations seeking to reshape the society and economy, De illustrates how laws and policies were frequently undone or renegotiated from below using the state’s own procedures. De examines four important cases that set legal precedents: a Parsi journalist’s contestation of new alcohol prohibition laws, Marwari petty traders’ challenge to the system of commodity control, Muslim butchers’ petition against cow protection laws, and sex workers’ battle to protect their right to practice prostitution. Exploring how the Indian Constitution of 1950 enfranchised the largest population in the world, A People’s Constitution considers the ways that ordinary citizens produced, through litigation, alternative ethical models of citizenship.