Quotes from Prashant Bhushan

I am extremely grateful and humbled by the solidarity and support expressed by countless persons, ex-judges, lawyers, activists and fellow citizens who encouraged me to remain firm and true to my beliefs and conscience.

Chinese engineers have spent years finding solutions to the problems of building a railway line on permafrost ground at altitudes above 4,000 metre.

India is a land of minorities. Everyone belongs to some minority.

How we decide the vexed issue of the method of selection of judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts would determine the future of our democracy and the rule of law in the country. We are faced with the twin problem of selecting the best judges and also ensuring that the judiciary would be insulated from executive interference.

It is difficult to believe that parties are unaware of the crimes that their M.P.'s are committing. But there is no effort to take action against them, till they are caught and publicly exposed.

For any unbiased and realistic enquiry against judges, one needs a full time body, independent of the government as well as of the judiciary, with an investigative machinery under its control, through which it can get complaints investigated.

When the fascists are through with the Muslims and Christians, they will turn on the others.

Any unfair and scandalous allegations made by disgruntled litigants will be ignored and recognised for what they are by the public, and can be dealt with under the law of civil and criminal defamation.

When I said that the court should be willing to suffer even intemperate criticism, I did not mean that people should level intemperate criticism. What I said is even if criticism is intemperate or unfair and bordering on scurrilous and abusive, it will be understood for what it is by the people.

I believe that open criticism of any institution is necessary in a democracy, to safeguard the constitutional order.

The Aam Aadmi party is of the view that Kashmir is an integral part of India. Needless to say that I share this view.

There exists a cell of policemen within the Delhi Police which is accountable to no one but itself. Operating without uniforms, these are the dreaded encounters specialists of Delhi.

It is true that the battle for secularism must be fought in the hearts and minds of people, but how does one reach out to the hearts and minds in a fascist state?

Some are motivated by a desire to mould the law to expand the rights of the downtrodden, while other may be motivated by a desire to maintain the Status Quo. Some may even be motivated by a desire to protect what they perceive to be their class interest. And such motives may not always even be conscious to the judges.

The judiciary is peopled by judges who are human, and being human, they are occasionally motivated by considerations other than an objective view of law and justice.

A serious flaw found by the Court in the IMDT Act was that it did not place the burden of proving his Indian citizenship on the person accused of being a foreigner, unlike in the Foreigner's Act.

The Dinakaran episode has brought to the surface the vexed problem of the arbitrary and totally unsatisfactory manner of selecting and appointing judges as well as the unresolved problem of dealing with complaints of misconduct and corruption against judges.

It is inexplicable as to why the Chief Justice or other judges of the Supreme Court are unwilling to disclose their assets, particularly when they had themselves directed even candidates contesting elections to publicly declare their assets.

I am pained that I have been held guilty of committing contempt of the Court whose majesty I have tried to uphold - not as a courtier or cheerleader but as a humble guard - for over three decades, at some personal and professional cost. I am pained, not because I may be punished, but because I have been grossly misunderstood.

In India, all public servants employed by the central or a state government or any other public authority under their control are required under the relevant civil service rules to submit returns of movable and immovable assets owned by them and their immediate family.

The Ramaswami case and subsequent attempts to impeach judges have demonstrated the total impracticality of that instrument to discipline judges.

Ultimately, it is only a powerful civil society movement which can break the vicious cycle of corruption in any society.

If only Rs.10 lakhs on an average were given to each of the less than 1 million villages in the country for rainwater harvesting on the lines pioneered by the Tarun Bharat Sangh in Rajasthan, much of the agricultural land in the country could be irrigated.

The only procedure under the Constitution to deal with judicial misconduct is impeachment, which needs to be initiated by at least 100 MPs and has been found to be totally impractical and virtually useless.