Supreme Court in 2018: A Dickensian mixed bag of milestones and misses

While the apex court showed promise in some areas of defending the citizen against social morality, it did not stand sentinel against government overreach

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” was how Dickens began his tale of two cities. As far as the Supreme Court is concerned, 2018 was a year of two chief justices. The year began with four of the senior-most judges of the Court addressing an unprecedented press conference, in which they apprised the country about what they perceived was the misuse by the sitting Chief Justice of India, of the power to allocate cases. We are now approaching the end of the year, and three of those four judges have since retired. And one