Prashant Bhushan

“Normally, the secrecy and lack of transparency surrounding the appointment of judges of the higher judiciary ensures that citizens come to know of these appointments only after the Presidential notification, announcing the appointments, is issued.”

“With the passing of Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, who had just entered his 100th year, the world has lost one of the greatest judges and jurists of all time and also a fine human beings. He used his extraordinary juristic and intellectual gifts to help everyone he could and to address all forms of human suffering.”

“I believe that open criticism of any institution is necessary in a democracy, to safeguard the constitutional order.”

“In any food crisis, it is the top of the food chain that suffers the most. In the case of farmer's distress, the top of food chain is us - the end consumer.”

“Since environmental and health damage is not factored into reducing GDP - and in fact the resulting health costs and the costs of cleaning up the environment would also inflate GDP, a GDP obsessed government would try and dismantle environmental and health regulations.”

“It is a fundamental principle that every institution must be accountable to an authority which is independent of that institution. Yet somehow, the judiciary has propagated a view that the judiciary can only be accountable to itself.”

“No public servant or legislator can claim any privacy to take money for conducting their official functions.”

“It is argued by our GDP obsessed policy planners that eventually the money being made by the stock market operators or the IT industry would trickle down to the poor farmers in terms of ancillary jobs that would be created. But the fact is, that this has not happened, despite the boom in the stock market and the IT industry.”

“The lack of judicial accountability exemplified by the lack of a system of selecting judges and of dealing with complaints against them, has indeed led to the system gradually losing its integrity.”

“Man's endeavour to cross even the most difficult terrain with railway lines has produced some of the most stunning marvels of engineering of the modern age.”

“It is inexplicable as to why the Chief Justice or other judges of the Supreme Court are unwilling to disclose their assets, particularly when they had themselves directed even candidates contesting elections to publicly declare their assets.”

“The court's reputation is affected by what people say only if it seems to have a ring of fairness and authenticity.”

“I first met Mr Tarkunde in 1976 during the Emergency, when Civil Liberties had been extinguished and the Habeas Corpus case was being heard by the Supreme Court, which would decide whether one could even approach the courts against illegal detention by the State, during the Emergency.”

“In order to provide for their independence, the Constitution made judges of the superior courts immune from removal except by impeachment.”

“The illegitimate money made by corrupt public servants and the power that it gives them is then also used to perpetuate them in office. This corrupt money is one of the main factors responsible for the continued reelection of such politicians. They become masters of the people they are supposed to serve.”

“It is true that the battle for secularism must be fought in the hearts and minds of people, but how does one reach out to the hearts and minds in a fascist state?”

“The Ramaswami case and subsequent attempts to impeach judges have demonstrated the total impracticality of that instrument to discipline judges.”

“The Dinakaran episode has brought to the surface the vexed problem of the arbitrary and totally unsatisfactory manner of selecting and appointing judges as well as the unresolved problem of dealing with complaints of misconduct and corruption against judges.”

“You cannot cave in saying something that is against your conscience and belief. That self-righteous ego is a must for any self-respecting, truth-loving person.”

“It does not take much technical knowledge to understand why the interlinking of rivers is an absurd idea and a ruinous project.”