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1985 Third World Legal Stud. 107 (1985)
Taking Suffering Seriously: Social Action Litigation in the Supreme Court of India

handle is hein.journals/twls1985 and id is 117 raw text is: TAKING SUFFERING SERIOUSLY: SOCIAL ACTION LITIGATION IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA Upendra Baxi* i. Introduction The Supreme Court of India is at long last becoming, after thirty two years of the Republic, the Supreme Court for Indians. For too long, the apex constitutional court had become an arena of legal quibbling for men with long purses.' Now, increasingly, the Court is being identified by justices as well as people as the last resort for the oppressed and the bewildered.2 The transition from a traditional captive agency with a low social visibility into a liberated agency with a high socio-political visibility is a remarkable development in the career of the Indian appellate judici- ary.' A post-emergency phenomenon, the transformation is characterized chiefly by judicial populism.4 The Court is augmenting its support base and moral authority in the nation at a time when other institutions of governance are facing a legitimation crisis.' In the process, like all political institutions, the Court promises more than it can deliver and is severely exposed to the dynamics of disenchantment. For the present, and the near future, however, there is little prospect of the Court reverting to its traditional adjudicatory posture where people's causes appeared merely as issues, argued arcanely by lawyers, and decided * Vice-Chancellor, South Gujarat University, Surat, Gujarat, India. 1. Kesavnanda Bharathi v. State of Kerala (1973) 4 S.C.C. 225 at 947 (hereinafter cited as Kesavnanda). 2. State of Rajasthanv. Union of India (1977) 3 S.C.C. 634 at 70 (per Justice Goswami). 3. It is customary to think about administrative and regulatory agencies as 'captive.' See, e.g. D.M. Trubek Public Policy Advocacy: Administrative Government and Representation of Diffuse Interests in III Access to Justice 445 (M. Cappelletti & B. Garth eds. 1979) and the literature there cited. But, barring small causes courts and similar other judicial fora, the notion of 'captive agency' has not been explicitly extended to appellate courts. Even these latter can become 'captive' to certain professional interests, backed by societal dominant groups. 4. See U. BAXI, THE INDIAN SUPREME COURT AND POLrrIcs 121-248 (1980), (hereinafter cited as Baxi, Politics). 5. Id. at 246-248A.

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