A brilliant memoir of one of India’s most illustrious judges
When Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul arrived at the Madras High Court as Chief Justice, he found something close to anarchy. Advocates had violent fights in the courtroom. Strikes paralysed proceedings. The corridors of one of India’s oldest and most storeyed courts had become ungovernable. What he did next – through a combination of foresight, iron will and stubbornness – would reshape that institution for generations and mark him out as one of the most consequential judicial figures of his era. But that was only one chapter in a remarkable life.
In this memoir, Justice Kaul traces nearly half a century of judicial life, from his early years at the Delhi Bar through the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to the Madras High Court and finally, to the Supreme Court of India. He writes with depth and openness about his rulings, in particular about the landmark judgments on freedom of speech in the M.F. Hussain and Perumal Murugan cases, his pathbreaking decision extending the right to secure permanent commissions to India’s women in uniform, his prescient judgment on the right to privacy, and his heartfelt concurrence in the Article 370 case.
What makes this book extraordinary, however, is not just the sweep of its author’s career but the quality of his reflection. Justice Kaul has the rare gift of making legal reasoning lucid – of showing how great judgments are not merely decided but thought. And he writes with a frankness about the inner workings of India’s legal system that few sitting or retired judges have ever permitted themselves.
This is a classic of Indian legal literature. A book for lawyers, certainly – but also for anyone who has ever wondered how justice is made, and unmade, in the world’s largest democracy.