Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Wednesday said the Supreme Court was the sentinel safeguarding the Constitution, while the members of the Bar were the torchbearers lighting its path.
Speaking during the Constitution Day celebrations, organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), the CJI said whenever the judiciary was called upon to adjudicate the constitutionality of a law, it was the Bar that brought forth the arguments, perspectives, and constitutional questions enabling the court to comprehend, deliberate, and decide. In this context, the Bar assumed an even greater and more consequential responsibility in the preservation of constitutional governance, he noted.
The CJI observed that judicial review was only as robust as the advocacy undergirding it. Quoting the judgements in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India and Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, he said these were not judicial monologues; they were adversarial dialogues shaped by rigorous submissions from the legal fraternity.
he said the Constitution Day served not as a ceremonial pause but as a renewed compact between the Bench and the Bar, between history and future, and between constitutional promise and societal transformation.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the Constitution Day was not merely a commemorative ritual; it is a moment of introspection for the Republic’s constitutional institutions.
The presence of Chief Justices and judges from Mauritius, Kenya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Bhutan added a quiet but powerful layer of transnational constitutionalism — an acknowledgment that India’s judicial influence, and the challenges it confronts, now transcend borders. As constitutional courts globally grapple with questions of executive overreach, civil liberties in the digital age, and cross-border regulatory regimes, such dialogue becomes indispensable.
The Law Minister’s interventions charted a parallel narrative — one rooted in constitutional history, political continuity, and developmental aspiration. By invoking the inclusive spirit of the Constituent Assembly and Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s warnings against social and economic inequality, Mr. Meghwal situated contemporary governance within the unfinished agenda of constitutional morality.
His reference to the Emergency as a moment when the Constitution “continued to show direction” underscored the text’s resilience even in times of institutional fracture. Yet the Minister’s most consequential remarks pertained to the arrival of Industry 4.0 and the regulatory complexities of artificial intelligence.
He said as the country moved towards becoming a developed nation by 2047, constitutional adjudication would increasingly turn on data protection, algorithmic accountability, and the balance between innovation and rights — arenas in which both Parliament and the judiciary must evolve rapidly.
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