Line-up for the last word

The Supreme Court must set norms for picking cases out of turn

India is said to have the longest Constitution (140,000 words), which is the most amended one (101 times), and a Supreme Court which is far more powerful than in any other democracy. One would add that it has the most powerful chief justice on the administrative side, though he is one among the 30 equals in adjudicatory jurisdiction. This year’s events starting with the news conference by four senior judges in January showed how critical this power is. The dissonance died down with a constitution bench pronouncing that the CJ is the Master of the Roster.

In that position,  the CJ