Book contents
- Towering Judges
- Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy
- Towering Judges
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Contributors
- Introduction: Towering Judges – A Conceptual and Comparative Analysis
- 1 Towering Judges and Global Constitutionalism
- 2 The Landscapes that Towering Judges Tower Over
- 3 Sir Anthony Mason: Towering Over the High Court of Australia
- 4 Lady Hale: A Feminist Towering Judge
- 5 Hugh Kennedy: Ireland’s (Quietly) Towering Nation-Maker
- 6 Judicial Rhetoric of a Liberal Polity: Hong Kong, 1997–2012
- 7 Judicial Minimalism as Towering: Singapore’s Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong
- 8 Nepal’s Most Towering Judge: The Honourable Kalyan Shrestha
- 9 Barak’s Legal Revolutions and What Remains of Them: Authoritarian Abuse of the Judiciary-Empowerment Revolution in Israel
- 10 PN Bhagwati and the Transformation of India’s Judiciary
- 11 Justice Cepeda’s Institution-Building on the Colombian Constitutional Court: A Fusion of the Political and the Legal
- 12 A Towering but Modest Judicial Figure: The Case of Arthur Chaskalson
- 13 Chief Justice Sólyom and the Paradox of “Revolution under the Rule of Law”
- 14 The Socialist Model of Individual Judicial Powers
- 15 The Civil Law Tradition, the Pinochet Constitution, and Judge Eugenio Valenzuela
- 16 Towering versus Collegial Judges: A Comparative Reflection
- Appendix
- Index
10 - PN Bhagwati and the Transformation of India’s Judiciary
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2021
- Towering Judges
- Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy
- Towering Judges
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Contributors
- Introduction: Towering Judges – A Conceptual and Comparative Analysis
- 1 Towering Judges and Global Constitutionalism
- 2 The Landscapes that Towering Judges Tower Over
- 3 Sir Anthony Mason: Towering Over the High Court of Australia
- 4 Lady Hale: A Feminist Towering Judge
- 5 Hugh Kennedy: Ireland’s (Quietly) Towering Nation-Maker
- 6 Judicial Rhetoric of a Liberal Polity: Hong Kong, 1997–2012
- 7 Judicial Minimalism as Towering: Singapore’s Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong
- 8 Nepal’s Most Towering Judge: The Honourable Kalyan Shrestha
- 9 Barak’s Legal Revolutions and What Remains of Them: Authoritarian Abuse of the Judiciary-Empowerment Revolution in Israel
- 10 PN Bhagwati and the Transformation of India’s Judiciary
- 11 Justice Cepeda’s Institution-Building on the Colombian Constitutional Court: A Fusion of the Political and the Legal
- 12 A Towering but Modest Judicial Figure: The Case of Arthur Chaskalson
- 13 Chief Justice Sólyom and the Paradox of “Revolution under the Rule of Law”
- 14 The Socialist Model of Individual Judicial Powers
- 15 The Civil Law Tradition, the Pinochet Constitution, and Judge Eugenio Valenzuela
- 16 Towering versus Collegial Judges: A Comparative Reflection
- Appendix
- Index
Summary
Justice PN Bhagwati, who served on the Supreme Court of India from 1973 to 1986 (including as chief justice from 1985 to 1986) is widely regarded as the most influential jurist in post-independence India. He was the main architect of public interest litigation (PIL) in the 1980s. Moreover, his engagement with the press and civil society, along with his post-judicial career as a global advocate for human rights, made him a well-known figure beyond legal circles and kept him in the limelight long after his retirement from the Court. That Justice Bhagwati was a towering judge is beyond dispute. More contested is his legacy. This chapter argues that Bhagwati’s greatest strength as a justice – unwavering confidence in the rightness of his cause – turned out to be a grave weakness, causing substantial damage to India’s higher judiciary.
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- Towering JudgesA Comparative Study of Constitutional Judges, pp. 195 - 214Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021