Doctrinal essays on Indian constitutional law, statutory interpretation and the ideas that courts use to decide hard cases.
The Supreme Court reviews equality challenges through three different tests — classification, arbitrariness, and proportionality. They emerged at different moments and answer different questions. Half a century in, the Court still has not said which one gov...
M.C. Mehta gave India a rule of absolute liability that walked away from Rylands v Fletcher. Forty years on, the rule has no limiting principle, no statutory home, and an enforcement record that rides on it as if it were settled law.
Kesavananda was conceived to defend the Constitution against a Parliament that had begun to amend it at will. Fifty years later, the doctrine has done its job — and a good deal more.
This page collects The Republic essays filed under Doctrinal Essays. New longer reads appear here as the section develops.
