SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This article analyses the emergence and practice of public interest litigation in India; it is an important publication as the book is part of an annual series and Germany’s most prominent academic series on India. Set in the realm of “political jurisprudence”, the article illustrates general transformative events – particularly judicial behaviour and litigation support structures – which allowed India’s judges to reinvent their power of judicial review in the style of judicial activism. Key cases and litigation patterns are analysed in the context of increased political competition and the resulting politicisation of constitutional justice. Last but not least, the article presents a formal model of Indian public interest litigation in terms of Laura Nader’s “user theory” of law. The conclusion thus defends the democratic status of India’s powerful courts against the counter-majoritarian critique.