Delivering the P G C Chengappa Memorial Lecture on ‘Supreme Court and Democracy’ organised by Lahari Advocates’ Forum on Friday, he said in the recent years, RTI activism and media sensationalism have determined public opinion, but the courts by and large had managed to be independent of the trends.
Chronicling the passage of the judiciary since Independence, Justice Babu outlined the challenges faced by the Supreme Court in each decade by the ensuing political and economic developments. “During the Nehruvian era of progress, the Court was led by erudite justices. They moved slowly but surely,” he said.
Speaking about the Emergency, he said it was a time when judiciary had zero space and played no role at all.
About the liberalisation era, he said once economic forces started to determine the market, new kinds of cases started to come in.
The new emerging socio-economic situation would be the space for the present Supreme Court to operate, he concluded. Chief Justice J S Khehar observed that the Supreme Court’s contribution to democracy was evident in the small things that citizens could enjoy.
Speaking about individual freedom and reservation system that enabled every person to achieve equality, Justice Khehar said: “The Supreme Court worked out the system of equality so the world recognised India as the largest democracy.”