The long disarm of the law | The Indian Express

The long disarm of the law | The Indian Express

Written by Pratap Bhanu Mehta |Updated: August 17, 2019 12:51:25 pm

Pratap Bhanu Mehta is Contributing Editor at the Indian Express. He has been vice-chancellor of Ashoka University and president, Centre Policy Research, New Delhi, one of India's top think tanks. Before he started engaging with contemporary affairs, he taught political theory at Harvard, and briefly at JNU.  He has written extensively on intellectual history, political theory, law,  India's social transformation and world affairs. He is the recipient of the Infosys Prize, the Adisheshiah Prize and the Amartya Sen Prize.

The long disarm of the law

Even by its own spotty standards, abdication of the legal profession in leading the charge for liberty is striking.

There are a few petitions pending in the Supreme Court. But the court has already abdicated its responsibility by kicking the can down the road. (Express Photo)

The constitutionality and wisdom of rendering Article 370 irrelevant to Kashmir can be debated. But no matter which side of the debate you are on, the spectre of the Indian legal system abdicating its responsibility to protect the liberties of ordinary Indians should alarm all of us.