The Guardians of Civil Liberty
The checks-and-balances design of our Constitution requires the Judiciary to not get cosy with the Executive
On a heritage walk in Delhi a while ago, I was with some friends waiting to get into Humayun's Tomb. Among them was a woman journalist, and as we waited to enter this historical, world heritage monument in central Delhi, she turned to her college-going son to share a bit of personal history. Across the road from where we stood was the Nizamuddin police station. "Daddy was kept there, when he was arrested during the Emergency," she said, pointing in the direction. Her husband, now a well-known politician, was at the time a student leader at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Talking later to young lawyers in my office, I narrated this motherand-son exchange. And tacked on a question: "Imagine I have been detained in similar circumstances, and
