Soli J. Sorabjee
The writer is a former attorney general of India.
Articles By Soli J. Sorabjee
Babasaheb’s warning: In politics, hero-worship is a path to degradation and eventual dictatorship
Ambedkar emphasised that this caution is far more necessary in the case of India. For in India, bhakti, or what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in politics, unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country.
Court’s in-house procedure, by which allegations against CJI were examined, has stood the test of time
If we do not trust judges of the Supreme Court, then God save the country. We must put a lid upon the unfortunate controversy and save the institution, the office of the Chief Justice of India, from further damage.
Ambedkar’s ideas of social justice still haunt country’s constitutional apparatus. How much have we achieved?
Ambedkar believed that unless the moral values of a constitution are upheld, the grandiloquent words in it will not protect the freedom and democratic values of the people.
A labour of law
Constituent Assembly debates were full of disagreement, humour and hope. Will the dreams of the founding fathers come true?
Slogans, critical of govt, are not anti-national and do not amount to sedition
Invocation of the section (on sedition) should only be in cases of slogans which incite violence and have a tendency to create public disorder. Our state rests on solid foundations which cannot be disturbed by ill-tempered or pungent or stupid slogans.
A duty to curb intolerance
The movie Kedarnath, which depicts the love story, has sparked a controversy. There are shrill demands for banning its exhibition. The Uttarakhand High Court observed that those who do not like the movie need not watch it.
The noble dissenters
Dissenting judgments on Sabarimala and Bhima Koregaon speak to the future.
Amazing Grace
Atalji made friends and disarmed his opponents
The Constitution was founded on these
Our founding fathers were driven by the learnings of the past, the turmoil of the present and the possibilities of the future.
The Limits Of Freedom
Sedition law has been misused by over-zealous agencies. That’s no reason to scrap it
When a PM gave me counsel
And other memories starring leaders and lawyers
Be intolerant of intolerance
Why the Supreme Court judgment in the case of ‘An Insignificant Man’ shows the way.
A duty to be tolerant
The rise of intolerance is alarming. Dissent is smothered and self-censorship takes its place, endangering democracy itself.
Protect the dissenter
That is the state’s responsibility. It must punish those who violently target dissent
This thing called privacy
One salutary consequence is that the right to privacy cannot be curtailed or abrogated by merely enacting a statute but can be done only by a constitutional amendment after complying with certain constitutional prerequisites.
For the People
This erudite book illuminates how judicial review of legislation empowers and protects democracy.
The duty to practise tolerance
It should be expressly included and highlighted in the list of fundamental duties in our Constitution
What we need to guard
Fundamental rights are no gifts of the state, the Constitution only confirms their existence.
A duty of tolerance
Intolerance has a chilling effect on freedom of thought and discussion. It places democracy under siege.
Sedition law cannot be used against honest views, expressed peacefully
It is the need of the hour to contain the forces of bigotry and intolerance which pose a grave threat to our democratic secular republic.