Articles by Abhinav Chandrachud

The murder of Graham Staines and his two minor sons was no less "brutal" or "barbaric" and no less of a "slur on the nation" than an honour killing. In both, the murderer sought to interfere with the fundamental constitutional rights of his victims. Yet, the Supreme Court advocated the death penalty in the honour killing case but only life imprisonment in the Staines case. There are strong moral reasons for abolishing the death penalty altogether. However, as long as it continues to exist on the statute books, it must be applied in a constitutionally consistent manner, an approach which must accord equal status to equal rights.

There are hardly any data-based studies that tell us who Indian Supreme Court judges are, or where they come from. A study on the composition of the Supreme Court between July 1985 and May 2010 reveals continuity with little change, compared to information collated in the late 1960s. So even if variations emerge in the age at which justices have been appointed to the Supreme Court or in the manner in which some states have been allocated "seats" or in the number of justices who have studied abroad, very few women have become Supreme Court judges.