Contents: Acknowledgements. Contributors. Introduction. I. Judiciary and judicial activism: 1. The struggle over judicial review: Supreme Court and limited government/Douglas V. Verney. 2. Governance by judiciary: into the next millennium/Rajeev Dhavan. 3. Bill of rights: Judicial approach, principles of interpretation and remedies--the Indian experience/Soli J. Sorabjee. 4. Inconclusive overview of judicial activism in India/Mahendra pal Singh. 5. Judicialization of politics/Rajinder Sachar. 6. Public interest litigation: Supreme Court in the era of liberalization/Prashant Bhushan. 7. Politics of judicial administration/R.K. Barik. II. Judiciary and Ecology: 8. Environmental justice through public interest litigation/D.S. Sengar. 9. Supreme court environmental crusade: enforcing CNG alternative for world's third most polluted city/Subhendu Rajan Raj. 10. Resolving river water disputes in India: The Supreme court and the Narmada River Dams controversy/John R. Wood. III. Judiciary and secularism: 11. Secular state in a hyper-religious society: the role of the judiciary/C.P. Bhambhri. 12. Secularism and justice: a review of Indian supreme court judgements/Sanghamitra Padhy. IV. Judiciary and parliamentary local institutions: 13. Parliamentary privileges and immunities in India: An argument for codification/M.P. Singh. 14. Indian judiciary and local governments/George Mathew. V. Judiciary and central executive: 15. Indian superior judiciary: the selection and impeachment of judges/K.G. Kannabiran. 16. India: a study in executive judicial relations revisited/B.D. Dua. 17. Supranational intergovernmental relations and the role of judiciary/Rekha Saxena. VI. Judiciary and reforms: 18. Indian judiciary and the new economy/S.K. Verma. 19. Judicial reforms and market institutions: the emerging scenario/Dolly Arora. 20. Reforms in the criminal justice system/V.K. Ohri. Index.
"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 representative in a democracy cannot be trusted to provide good and lawful governance. From this perspective, the unprecedented judicializtion of politics and the growth of judicial activism in Indian 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 contextualized 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." (jacket)
