In 1980, a majority of four out of five judges upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty in Bachan Singh v State of Punjab. The sole dissenter was Justice P.N. Bhagwati, who noted the inherent arbitrariness and inhumanity of the death penalty in a detailed opinion.

In the latest article as part of our special series commemorating 75 years of the Court, Shreya Rastogi and Neetika Vishwanath from Project 39A highlight the advances in empirical research on capital punishment since the decision in Bachan Singh. They argue that the reality today proves many of Justice Bhagwati's concerns to be true.

Read it here: https://www.scobserver.in/75-years-of-sc/how-justice-bhagwatis-44-year-old-dissent-mirrors-the-state-of-death-penalty-in-india/

Author Salil Tripathi’s essay in our special series commemorating 75 years of the Supreme Court of India talks about how the courts have approached book bans.

Ostensibly, these bans are in favour of public interest, but more often, they serve the interests of powerful groups—political parties, ruling governments, multinational corporations.

Salil writes that when cases make it to the Supreme Court, it has often upheld the author's freedom of expression. However, the real theatre of the book ban in India is often the bureaucratic office, the city street and the village square.

Read Salil's article now on SCObserver.in!

Have you read the previous stories we’ve put out as part of our SC@75 series? You’ll find in the set a compelling mix of history, pop culture and legal analysis.

Today, the Supreme Court hosts 34 judges. These judges have a vast library of precedents to rely on and time-honed processes to ensure smooth functioning. But during its formative years, the Court had just eight judges.

Six judges were present in the Court’s inaugural session on 28 January 1950: Chief Justice Harilal Kania, and Justices S. Fazl Ali, Patanjali Shastri, Mehr Chand Mahajan, B.K. Mukherjea, and S.R. Das. Justice N.C. Aiyar was appointed in September 1950. A year later, Justice Vivian Bose came on board to complete the original roster of eight.

As part of SCO’s special series commemorating 75 years of the Supreme Court, associate editor R. Sai Spandana, has written a potted history of the first eight judges of the top court.

Read the essay now on scobserver.in.