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A timely volume that highlights the forthright and candid views and opinions on a wide variety of pertinent issues by one of India’s most respected legal luminaries

Fali S. Nariman, with a remarkable track record in the legal field, is not one to mince his words. He holds forth cogently on topics such as the Supreme Court and the judiciary, politicians and Parliament, the media and its right to expression, the Constitution (of which he is an ardent defender), and the minorities and more.

Whatever be the subject, he drives home his points on the basis of sound and logical contentions and arguments. Also, he questions the recent functioning of the Supreme Court of India, the government’s policies vis-à-vis the press, the judiciary and particularly the minorities, who, he declares, today need to be protected, as per the Constitution, more than ever before. He peppers the text with countless facts, innumerable anecdotes and enthralling incidents that make for fascinating and enriching reading. His analysis of judicial activism and the fear of a majoritarian government provide much food for thought.

The contents are rounded off with nostalgic cameos on the author’s experience regarding defamation (which he says is a luxury) and a wholesome tribute to the ‘Super Judge’ Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer, whose presence he greatly misses.

Here is a work that neither the students of law and contemporary politics nor the legal practitioners and the lay person can afford to miss.

The judge’s role when interpreting the Constitution is like that of an artist drawing a picture: the frame of the picture and the artist’s tools must always be drawn from the text of the Constitution, its structure and the country’s history, but there must also be some measure of the artist’s own vision and understanding.