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Conclusion

Neither a Silver Bullet Nor a Hollow Hope

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2019

Gerald N. Rosenberg
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Sudhir Krishnaswamy
Affiliation:
Azim Premji University, Bangalore
Shishir Bail
Affiliation:
Azim Premji University, Bangalore
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Summary

The preceding chapters explored the effects of leading decisions of the Indian Supreme Court on the lives of India’s marginalized citizens. They addressed the question of whether the Indian Supreme Court is an effective agent of progressive social change or is constrained in furthering the rights of the relatively disadvantaged. We suggested in thethat the Indian Supreme Court might be capable of playing a progressive role because it has several advantages that other national high courts, particularly the US Supreme Court, lack. These include the broad sweep of constitutional rights in the Indian Constitution, the procedural improvisations the Court has made such as its public interest litigation (PIL) docket, its suo moto jurisdiction, its continuing mandamus process, and its heightened structural independence from the other branches of the central government. These suggest that Indian Supreme Court decisions might have the ability to make a real difference in the lives of India’s most disadvantaged citizens.

Type
Chapter
Information
A Qualified Hope
The Indian Supreme Court and Progressive Social Change
, pp. 345 - 358
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Arvind, Ayesha, “Even Deities Can’t Stop Men from Urinating in Public, Says Court,” India Today, April 12, 2014.Google Scholar
ChandrachudChintan, “Constitutional Interpretation.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution (Choudhry, Sujit, Khosla, Madhav & Mehta, Pratap Bhanu eds., 1st ed. India: Oxford University Press 2016).Google Scholar
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Qazi, Asher, “A Government of Judges,” JSD Dissertation, University of Chicago, 2018.Google Scholar
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Rosenberg, Gerald N., “Review Section Symposium: Gauging the Impact of Law,” 21 L. & Soc. Inquiry 435 (1996).Google Scholar

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