COURT OF FIRST AND LAST RESORT

As protector of citizen’s liberties and watchdog of the

- FAIZAN MUSTAFA

WHEN the Independence Bill was debated in the British Parliament, then leader of opposition Winston Churchill remarked, “The Indian political parties and political classes do not represent the Indian masses. It is a delusion to believe that they do…. In handing over the government of India to these so-called political classes, we are handing over to men of straw, of whom, in a few years, no trace will remain.” Seventy years after the Constitution was adopted, many Indians are convinced that the prophetic observations of our worst critic may soon come true. This author, however, believes that our Constitution, political leadership and the highest court have performed fairly well, despite ups and downs.

American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr famously said, “The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.” We are a successful democracy; authoritarian leaders who rose to power were also thrown out by popular vote. In these challenging times, when democracies are turning towards authoritarianism not through military coups, but through the ballot, our courts must stand up to protect people’s rights.

Chief Justice Harilal Kania had said at the inauguration of the Supreme Court that the court must be “quite untouchable by the legislature or the executive authority in the performance of its duties”. Our Supreme Court’s rec ord has been by and large satisfactory in protecting civil liberties, though there have been a few anxious moments when the court behaved more like a “committed” judiciary upholding the curtailment of rights by the government.