‘The Politics of Public Interest Litigation in Post-Emergency India’ by Anuj Bhuwania

/ Event, Sociological Research Colloquium

Anuj Bhuwania from Sociology, South Asian University presented his research entitled ‘The Politics of Public Interest Litigation in Post-Emergency India’ at the Sociological Research Colloquium.

When: Friday, 17th February 2017 at 3:00 p.m.

Where: Seminar Room (First Floor), Department of Sociology, University of Delhi 

Abstract

The Indian higher judiciary has acquired an increasingly important role in India’s public discourse in the last few decades. The Supreme Court and the state High Courts have emerged as enormously powerful judicial institutions in the aftermath of the Internal Emergency of 1975-77. The principal means through which these judicial powers have been mobilized and enacted is the jurisdiction of Public Interest Litigation (PIL). This lecture will talk about the political role that PIL has come to play in contemporary India. It revisits the circumstances and manoeuvres that led to the rise of PIL and traces its political journey since then, arguing that the enormous powers that PIL confers upon the appellate judiciary stems from its populist character.  

About the Speaker

Anuj Bhuwania is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at South Asian University, New Delhi. He is the author of ‘Courting the People: Public Interest Litigation in Post-Emergency India,’ published in December 2016 by Cambridge University Press, He has held visiting positions at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Goettingen, the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi and the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance (CSLG) in Jawaharlal Nehru University.

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