Asia | Modi and the judges

India’s new chief justice faces a trial of strength

Will the Supreme Court stand up for its independence?

NEW DELHI, INDIA - NOVEMBER 12: Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, on November 12, 2022 in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
|DELHI

NARENDRA MODI has never made a secret of his distaste for an independent judiciary. One of his first moves after becoming India’s prime minister in 2014 was to push for a constitutional amendment that would have given the government significant influence over the selection of top judges. Having passed both houses of the legislature, Mr Modi’s effort was thwarted in October 2015 by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the amendment was unconstitutional. New judges continue to be selected by a group of their colleagues.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Modi and the judges”

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