If judges are unwilling to stand up during testing times, democracy is not safe: Dushyant Dave

He said, “Jail is the exception and bail is the rule but they have forgotten this. Are judges, right from the lower courts to the Supreme Court, insisting that one must be in jail because one is presumed to be guilty? But the law says one is presumed to be innocent. That is the fundamental principle of criminal jurisprudence.”

Written by Brendan Dabhi

Ahmedabad | Updated: November 23, 2025 09:11 AM IST

4 min read

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave. (Screengrab: Manthan)

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is now the “hero of a certain ideology” but he was a “very different man” who not only consolidated India but also gave us fundamental rights. These rights are untouchable and sacrosanct, Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave said on Saturday.

“But some judges [in the past] failed us and proclaimed themselves to be “liberal” and “socialist”. However, they didn’t stand up for us when the testing time came. At the time of tests, if the judges are unwilling to stand up, democracy is not safe. That’s what is happening today. Our judges are just not being able to stand up,” he said.
Dave, a former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, was speaking at the 25th Professor Ramlal Parikh lecture on ‘Basic Human Values under the Constitution of India’, organised at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA).

“You’re not changing the constitution, but merely changing the form of the constitution. This is serious. Today, we are witnessing this change in the form of the government as we did during the Emergency. That was a declared Emergency and today, we have an ‘undeclared emergency’. So, we see citizens being killed in encounters, homes of citizens being demolished by bulldozers. There is no punishment called bulldozing someone’s home in the Indian Penal Code…” said Dave.

On the Preamble, he said, “The American constitution was drafted in under four months, but our constitution was deliberated upon for a long time. Sovereign, democratic and republic were the basic foundation of the constitution although [the then Prime Minister] Indira Gandhi added the words “socialist” and “secular” much later in 1976. The constitution framers were wondering how to put these basic values in the constitution. And in one paragraph, which is called the preamble, they have put these basic human values. This preamble is a work of genius and as we know, Dr B R Ambedkar was the chairman of the drafting committee. The basic values were also solidified in the fundamental rights chapter… Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the adviser to the fundamental rights sub-committee. Today, people make Sardar Vallabhbhai statues but forget that he gave us these rights which are unfortunately not being recognised today, much less respected.”

He spoke on the four pillars of the Constitution, justice, liberty, equality and fraternity.
On individual rights, Dave said, “For centuries, there has been an individual and state and there is a constant struggle between the two about the individual claiming the rights and the state trying to trample upon those rights. From the time liberty was thought of, rulers have tried to target the citizen whenever the citizen has tried to speak up. Freedom fighters had experienced this during the British rule. We cannot imagine the kind of atrocities committed by the British upon our people. The constitution framers put all their pain, sorrows and experiences while drafting the constitution.”

Dave said the objective resolution of the preamble in the constituent assembly of India was debated for four days in the constituent assembly which sat for a total of 141 days of which 114 days were spent debating the constitution. “Not like today, when Bills in Parliament and state Assemblies are passed with voice votes, without discussion,” he said.

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