The Supreme Court of India

The functioning of India's Supreme Court has been informed by a high degree of judicial activism, which has drawn acclaim and criticism in equal measure. This chapter examines the origins, traces the evolution, analyses the effects, and assesses the institutional and public policy implications of such activism. The narrative can be roughly divided into three periods, with the first 20-odd years (1950-73) revealing a fairly principled and doctrinally sustainable approach on the part of the court, followed by a brief interregnum (1974-77) of subservience to the executive, and a further 20-odd years (1978-present) of highly visible but somewhat undisciplined and theoretically questionable activism.