The Leaflet’s Weekend Conversations – 1: Is Ex-CJI N.V.Ramana’s justification for a polyvocal Supreme Court valid?

In this first episode of The Leaflet's  Conversations – a special weekend podcast in which we examine the legal issues which made headlines in the preceding week with a special guest – The Leaflet's Editor, V.Venkatesan speaks to Prashant Padmanabhan, an Advocate on Record in the Supreme Court of India, and a perceptive observer of the contemporary legal controversies to throw light on some of the issues concerning the Supreme Court.

While Padmanabhan agrees with the former CJI, Ramana on the polyvocal nature of Indian Supreme Court, he feels that the remedy lies in the formation of a permanent Constitution bench.  Padmanabhan then supports CJI U.U.Lalit's strategy of drawing specific timelines for the Constitution benches on several cases pending before the Supreme Court.

He further explains why the Supreme Court's grant of bail to journalist Siddique Kappan – after two years of his incarceration – sends a significant message to the powers-that-be that freedom of expression should be valued at all costs.

Padmanabhan also explains the context in which the Supreme Court has intervened in the Kerala dog menace case, and the petition seeking uniform law on key issues.

The podcast starts with a brief summary of some of the other legal news as reported by the newspapers in the preceding week by The Leaflet's staff writer, Sarah Thanawala.

The conversation was recorded on September 10, 2022.