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14 Socio-Legal Rev. 170 (2018)
Anticorruption by Fiat: Structural Injunctions and Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court of India

handle is hein.journals/soclerev14 and id is 198 raw text is: 














   ANTICORRUPTION BY FIAT:

   STRUCTURAL INJUNCTIONS AND

   PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION IN

   THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA


   -Dr.   Chintan   Chandrachud*





Structural injunctions -  where  the  court issues a  series of
interim orders over  a period of time  in an effort to stimulate
institutional reform - are about as old in India as public inter-
est litigation (PIL) itself They are now   virtually the default
remedy  in PILs  at the Supreme  Court. This article focuses on
how  structural injunctions were deployed in two politically sali-
ent cases  during the  United Progressive Alliance  government
between  2004  and  2014  - the  2G  Spectrum   case and  the
Coalgate  case. A close examination  of these cases reveals a
broader picture not just about  the state of PIL and the use of
structural injunctions, but also about the perception and pop-
ular legitimacy of the Supreme   Court in India's constitutional
democracy.


Introduction  ................
The rise of public interest litigation and
structural injunctions in India ..........
Anticorruption, one order at a time - the 2G
Spectrum and Coalgate cases ..........
   Background .....................
   Control disguised as monitoring .......
   Orders without reasons  ..............


170

171

176
176
178
181


Populism and legitimacy: from the Forbes
list to caged parrots ...............  183
   Press reports of the Court's observations 183
   The Court's self-imposed jurisdictional
   limits.........................  186
   Public perception and the Court's
   popularity ....................... 187
Conclusion ...........................  188


Associate, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart &     Sullivan LLP, London. I am    grateful to Mrinali
Komandur and John Simte from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore for
research assistance. An anonymous reviewer offered helpful comments on an earlier draft. All
errors are mine.

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